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THE 

GOSPEL AMONG THE SLAVES. 

A SHORT ACCOUNT OF 

MISSIONARY OPERATIONS AMONG THE AFRICAN 
SLAVES OF THE SOUTHERN STATES. 



COMPILED FROM ORIGINAL SOURCES AND EDITED BY 
W.^p/hARRISON, D.D., LL.D., 

£ook Editor, Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 



Nashville, Tenn.: 

Publishing House of t)ie M. E. Church, South. 

Barbee & Smith, Agents. 

1893. 



'^DEC 1 1893. 



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Kntered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1893, ' 
By THE Book Agents of the Methodist Episcopal Chukch, South, 
]n the Office of the Librarian of Congress, atWashington. 



if 




REV. WILLIAM CAPERS, D.D., 
One of the Bishops of the M. E. Church, South. 



PREFACE. 



The following pages record the results of missionary enter- 
prise among the African slaves of the Southern states. From 
the earliest records available, the editor has obtained the narra- 
tive of the operations of various Christian Churches, including 
Baptists, Presbyterians, and Episcopalians. The chief authority 
for this narrative vi^as kindly forwarded to me by the Hon. 
Richard H. Clark, a gentleman who honors the judicial office in 
the city of Atlanta, Ga. 

To Miss Annie Maria Barnes is due the credit of collecting 
the materials of this volume from contemporary sources. The 
work of the editor has been confined to selection, abbreviation, 
and arrangement of these materials. When no authority is 
given for a statement in the text, the editor is responsible. 

That the general public will be surprised to learn some of 
the facts recorded in these pages the editor is firmly persuaded. 
Who among us realizes the fact that the people of the South 
expended nearly or quite t-wo millions of dollars for the evangel- 
ization of the slaves on the cotton and rice plantations between 
the years 1829 and 1864.'' This amount does not express the to- 
tal sum expended by Southern slave holders for the benefit of 
the negro slaves. '' Plantation missions" are alone represented, 
and these comprised a minority of the slaves in most of the South- 
ern states. Nor do we include the expenditures made by other 
Christian Churches. The two millions of dollars were con- 
tributed by the slave holders and their friends to forward the 
missions to the slaves conducted by the Methodist Episcopal 
Church from 1829 to 1844, and from 1844 to 1864 by the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, South. The Editor. 

Nashville, Term., January, 1893, 

(3) 



CONTENTS. 



Chapter I. Page 

St. Paul and the Greek Slave 7 

Chapter II. 
The Degradation of a Name 17 

Chapter III. 
Man Was Created to Have Dominion over the Earth 29 

Chapter IV. 
A Brief Historical Sketch 38 

Chapter V. 
A Brief Historical Sketch (Continued) 57 

Chapter VI. 
A Brief Historical Sketch (Concluded) 70 

Chapter VII. 

The Period of Decline : The Cause 88 

Chapter VIII. 
The Negro without the Gospel 96 

Chapter IX. 
Negro Insurrections m 

Chapter X. 

Beginnings of Missionary Work 117 

Chapter XI. 

Mission Work (Continued) 136 

Chapter XII. 

The Gospel on the Plantation 149 

(5) 



6 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

Chapter XIII. Page 

Plantation Work Continued to 1844 171 

Chapter XIV. 

Notes from the Pioneers 197 

Chapter XV. 
Plantation Missions from 1844 to 1864 297 

Chapter XVI. 
Traits of Christian Cliaracter „ 327 

Chapter XVII. 
Memorials of Faithful Slaves 364 

Chapter XVIII. 
Testimony of Prominent Freedmen 376 



CHAPTER I. 
St. Paul and the Greek Slave. 

ST. PAUL was the first preacher of the gospel 
to slaves. It is in his writings that we have 
the first distinct view of slavery as it existed in 
New Testament times, and from the pen of this 
apostle to the Gentiles we have distinctly defined 
the attitude of the Church toward human slavery: 

Art thou called being a servant? care not for it: but if thou 
mayest be made free, use it rather. For he that is called in 
the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord's freeman: likewise also 
he that is called, being free, is Christ's servant. Ye are bought 
with a price; be not ye the servants of men. Brethren, let 
every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God. (i 
Cor. vii. 21-24.) 

This being the attitude of the Church toward a 
civil institution, one with which the Church had 
nothing to do, in enlarging, contracting, or abol- 
ishing the relations of master and slave, it is the 
logical consequence that this apostle should teach 
as a religious duty the service which the state ex- 
acts solely as a political duty. St. Paul says : 

Let as many slaves as are under the yoke count their own 
masters [fW7r(5raf, despots] worthy of all honor, that the name of 
God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. And they that have 
believing masters, let them not despise them, because they are 
brethren: but rather do them service, because thej' are faithful 
and beloved, partakers of the benefit. These things teach and 
exhort, (i Tim. vi. i, 2.) 

It will be a profitable inquiry if we look brieflv 

(7) 



8 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

into the character of the civil institution of slavery 
as it existed in the lifetime of St. Paul. Prof. 
Becker, one of the most accomplished scholars of 
modern times, endeavors to account for what he 
calls a striking contradiction between the princi- 
ples and the practice of the Greeks. He says: 

One of the most striking anomalies in the character of the 
Greeks is, that though thej acknowledged above all other na- 
tions the value of personal freedom, and kept a jealous guard 
against every thing that threatened it from within, and were 
ready to resist to the death any encroachment made upon it 
from without, still they did not recognize the equal claims of 
all to this blessing, but withheld it from millions of their fel- 
low-men, whom they made mere personal instruments of their 
will, and reduced to a condition little superior to that of domes- 
tic animals. This strange contradiction may be partly due to 
their assumption that the barbarians were creatures of a natu- 
rally inferior order to themselves, though there was nothing in 
the habits of those nations which could excuse such arrogance. 
But the root of slavery lies elsewhere, and must be i-ather 
sought in the general disinclination to menial labor, and that 
abhorrence to servitude, based on false notions of liberty, which 
first made the possession of slaves desirable. In process of 
time this grew into an imperious necessity, which refused to 
take into consideration the justice or injustice of the case; and 
as there now existed a class of men which had, by birth and 
education, become divested of all the habits and feelings that 
were regarded as the essential characteristics of an e?.ev0£pog 
(freeman), the notion of their belonging to a different race of 
mankind seemed justified and strengthened. (Chariclea, p. 356.) 

In the ideal republic of Plato human slavery was 
an integral factor. Different laws are given for the 
freeman and the slave, verbal censure being the 
punishment for a freeman, where corporal chas- 
tisement should be inflicted upon the slave; and 
offenses punished by fine in the case of the free- 



SL Paul and the Greek Slave. 9 

man were visited with capital punishment when 
the criminal was a slave. These distinctions are 
perfectly in keeping with the Greek view of the 
inferiority of the slave race or races. Captured 
in war, and bought sometimes for only a few shil- 
lings, the ancestors of the slaves of St. Paul's day 
were either intellectually or morally incapable of 
contending for their freedom against their mas- 
ters. 

Aristotle does not enter into the question of the 
origin of slavery, or the moral right that one man 
has to claim property in the life and service of an- 
other. But he distinctly avows the doctrine of 
the inferiority of the slave race. He contrasts the 
works, the genius, the achievements in arms, the 
intellectual eminence of the ruling race with the 
vices and degradation of the slave, and concludes 
that the relative position of the two classes is the 
due of each, the proper reward for innate greatness 
and innate weakness. He declares that the slave 
belongs to a eTepoi^ yevog, heteron genos, a foreign 
race, an outside genus; and therefore the eternal 
law that the strong must rule the weak is in per- 
fect keeping with all that we know of the fitness 
of things in the moral government of the universe. 
This argument compels him to the conclusion that 
there is a code of laws especially adopted to the 
wants and necessities of the ^vasi hovT^OL^ the slave 
natures. Here and there we find a Greek poet, 
as Philemon, who entered a mild protest against 
this view of the subject, but from the great mass 



lo The Gospel among the Slaves. 

of the slaves in Greece there was seldom a note 
of remonstrance or an attempt at self-assertion in 
contest with their masters for personal liberty. 

With the exception of the Helots of Sparta, the 
Greek slaves were in a much more tolerable con- 
dition than those of Rome. The Spartans carried 
their barbarities to a great length, and in so doing 
were only giving play to the distinctive features of 
their character. They were a cruel people. Cru- 
el to their children and to those whom they loved 
best, it could not be expected that they should be 
kind and benevolent to those whom they disdained 
and despised. The clemency of the Athenians 
toward their slaves does not appear to have been 
caused by the great preponderance of the slave over 
the free population. The free burghers of Attica, 
in the time of Demetrius Phalereus, were found 
by a census to be twenty-one thousand; there were 
of resident aliens ten thousand, and of slaves four 
hundred thousand. Where the physical force was 
twenty to one against the masters, it was not the 
lack of power, but the want of capacity or dispo- 
sition, which prevented the uprising of the servile 
population against their owners. Nor does it ap- 
pear that the Greeks anticipated any trouble from 
the practice of educating their slaves to the various 
forms of skilled handicraft used in those times. 
Elevated above the manual labor which they con- 
sidered servile, the Greek gentlemen did not even 
employ themselves with the conduct of their own 
business interests, but placed these in the hands 



Si. Paul and Ihe Greek Slave. ii 

of a better and costlier class of slaves, for whom 
they often gave extravagant prices, but not so ex- 
orbitant as those paid for a similar class among 
the Romans. 

There are writers who are at a loss to imagine 
what principle was at stake in producing the long- 
continued and virtually voluntary subjection of a 
people who outnumbered their masters in the pro- 
portion of twenty to one. These persons seem 
to have but little knowledge of their own times, 
and especially of the classes of theorists whose 
speculations they represent. New England has 
been the quarter from which the most offensive 
and the most fanatical of these agencies have em- 
anated. If we are to believe Mr. J. Fenimore 
Cooper, "the besetting, the degrading vice of his 
section of America is the moral cowardice by 
which men are led to truckle to what is called 
public opinion." When this public opinion was 
supposed to be in favor of protecting the manu- 
fucturing interests of New England, an abolition- 
ist was mobbed in Boston as freely as a patriotic 
citizen was threatened with the same treatment if 
he dared openly to purchase a United States bond 
in 1814, during the last war with England. Why 
it was that the Greek slaves, who were not lack- 
ing in either intelligence or courage, were really 
attached to their masters, and would even die in 
their defense, it is utterly impossible for such wor- 
shipers of power to understand. Even Mr. Fran- 
cis A. Walker, in his recent work on the "Wages 



12 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

Question," cannot resist the inborn tendency of 
his people to measure the consciences of others by 
the clearly defined defects of their own ethical sys- 
tem. He says: " We know, by a mass of revolt- 
ing testimony, that in all countries avarice, the 
consuming lust of immediate gain, a passion which 
stands in the way of a true and enlarged view of 
self-interest and works unceasing despite to self- 
interest, has always despoiled the slave of a part 
of the food and clothing necessary to his highest 
efficiency as a laborer." (Walker's "Wages 
Question," p. 59,) To this very oracular state- 
ment of matters that may have passed under his 
own eyes, among the people of his native borough, 
he characteristically attaches the allegation of a 
universal custom, holding good in all lands, those of 
which he has no knowledge as well as those with 
which he is acquainted. To this oracular deliver- 
ance he attaches in a note an ill-grained and surly 
hypothesis which reveals the weakness of his 
brethren of the abolition propagandist school in 
New England. "When slavery was a political 
and social institution," he says, "as in the Middle 
States of the American Union, something of grace 
and kindliness might come to climb upon it." It 
is a bare possibility that such a thing might be, 
and this reluctant and ungracious acknowledg- 
ment is wrung from this man, who actually be- 
lieves himself an advocate of truth, by a "mass of 
testimony" that is "revolting" to fanatics, be- 
cause it falsifies their declarations and convicts 



SL Pmil and the Greek Slave. 13 

them of uttering the foulest slanders against those 
who have done them no wrong. 

But in direct antagonism with all the declara- 
tions of self-styled " philanthropists," the Greek 
slave was attached to his master, as a rule, and 
therefore the advice of St. Paul was by no means 
a hardship. "Art thou called being a slave?" Do 
not suppose that any merely outward circum- 
stances can procure or promote the happiness of 
the soul. Do not sorrow over the social relation 
that makes you the inferior of the so-called "high- 
er classes," but accept the grace of God, be faith- 
ful to the trusts committed to you, and make your 
inferior position a means of showing forth the 
power and glory of the gospel. Nevertheless, if 
your master sees proper to release you from the 
estate of bondage, accept the gift of freedom, 
and use it as wisely as you would have employed 
yourself in the service of a master. The calling is 
the same to all men, there is neither bond nor free 
in the kingdom of God, for all are brethren. And 
because all are brethren, " let every man, wherein 
he is called, therein abide with God." To strive 
against the bonds that Providence has permitted 
to be placed upon you is to challenge the justice 
of God, professedly under the influence of the 
saving grace of the gospel. 

The annals of the world have many records of 
super-serviceable people who have been dissatis- 
fied with Providence, and, like Rebecca, have en- 
deavored to hurry up the plans and purposes of 



14 The Gospel, among the Slaves. 

divine wisdom. In every case such well-meant 
actions have involved the subjects of their inter- 
ference in sorrow and disaster. Rebecca's strata- 
gem, by which she caused Jacob to personate his 
elder brother, Esau, was successful in stealing a 
blessing that would have been rightfully and regu- 
larly bestowed upon her favorite son if she had 
suffered the hand of Providence to direct his own 
counsels. 

Against this folly the apostle cautions the Greek 
slave. " Let as many slaves as are under the yoke 
count their own masters worthy of all honor, that 
the name of God and his doctrine be not blas- 
phemed." The bare refusal to do honor to the 
master is declared to be blasphemy against the 
name of God and his doctrine ! How utterly ir- 
reconcilable is that teaching with the anarchical 
declarations that pronounce the slave's master a 
fiend, and the slave's condition a crime, the one 
to be murdered by knife and bullet, and the other 
to be abolished by fire and sword ! 

"And they that have believing masters," con- 
tinues St. Paul, " let them not despise them be- 
cause they are brethren, but rather do them serv- 
ice, because they are faithful and beloved, par- 
takers of the benefit." The caution against the 
abuse of the brotherhood of Christ, by making it 
a pretense to assert the equality of social station, 
and because all men are equal in the kingdom of 
Christ, in point of privilege, to wrest this princi- 
ple by applying it to the organization of society, 



SL Paid and the Greek Slave, 15 

where all are not equal, never have been, and 
never w^ill be, even in the millennial state; to do 
this, is to desj^ise the master and dishonor the 
Lord Christ. " These things teach and exhort." 

These were the doctrines that gave Christianity 
an open door to the Greek and Roman world. 
The revolutionary theories and incendiary speech- 
es of a Clarkson, a Wilberforce, or even a Wesley, 
to say nothing of the heaven- daring impiety of 
New England fanatics, whose souls seemed in 
many instances to relapse into a state of positive 
savagery, would have doomed the early Church to 
extinction in the lifetime of the first preachers of 
the gospel. 

I am aware that these utterances of mine are 
not popular in this generation, but popularity is 
not evidence of truth. When hard pressed with 
these writings of St. Paul, the abolitionists of forty 
years ago renounced St. Paul, the Bible, and the 
God of heaven, because it was impossible to de- 
fend their insane denunciations of Southern slave- 
holders by the pages of Holy Writ. 

Nor was the motive of these crusaders the same 
that actuated St. Paul in his exhortations to the 
slaves of Greece. Paul loved the souls of these 
men. The abolitionists, as a class, cared nothing 
for the religious welfare of the negro. They were 
ready to move heaven and earth, and they de- 
clared that they were willing to sink the nation in 
the gulf of irretrievable ruin, unless they could 
abolish slavery. But once set free, the negro 



i6 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

might starve for aught they cared. To do an in 
jury to his master, in his pocket or his pride, they 
were ready to spend and be spent; but when the 
unfortunate subject of their zeal had perpetrated 
ah the wrong against his owner that he was capa- 
ble of doing, then these marvelous "philanthro- 
pists" turned the freedman out of doors to look 
out for himself. They did not hesitate to say that 
their mission was ended when the bonds of the 
slave were broken. 

"O my soul, come not thou into their secret; 
unto their assembly, mine honor, be not thou 
united." 



CHAPTER II. 
The Degradation of a Name. 

IT is a singular fact that the word slave occurs 
but once in the Authorized Version of the New 
Testament, and in that case it is not a translation 
of the original word employed by St= John. The 
fall of *' Babylon the great" is vividly described 
in Revelation xviii., and part of the merchandise 
lamented as forever lost by the " merchants of the 
earth " are the proceeds of the sale of " wine, and 
oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and 
sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and 
souls of men." In the Greek text the word trans- 
lated " slaves" is Gcd^arav, the bodies of men, as 
the souls of men form the counterpart in the next 
phrase. In Jeremiah ii. 14 our translators have 
supplied the term slave, placing the word in italic 
letters to show that there was nothing in the orig- 
inal Hebrew to answer to it. The word occurs 
nowhere else in the English Bible. The text in 
Jeremiah is one of the many cases in which our 
English version departs from the letter to preserve 
the spirit of the Hebrew text. Undoubtedly the 
prophet intended to ask the question, " Is Israel a 
slave? Is he born in the house, the property of a 
master? Why then is he despoiled?" So far 
from inferring any degradation in this question, 
2 (17) 



i8 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

the prophet's mind is engaged in considering the 
fact that as a slave, belonging to a great master, 
who was able and willing to defend his own prop- 
erty; it is an anomalous thing to find Israel " de- 
spoiled." With the usual strength of the parallel 
inquiry, "Is he a homeborn slave?" the prophet 
calls attention to the fact that Israel is a member 
of his master's household, a part of his family, en- 
titled to the protection of the sovereign power, the 
head of the family. Therefore, the despoiling of 
Israel is a surprising fact, and the reason for it 
can only be found in the treachery and desertion 
of the favored slave who has cast away his mas- 
ter's shield and fallen a victim to enemies stronger 
than he. 

But in the New Testament we can scarcely as- 
certain the reason that induced our translators to 
omit the rendering "slave" wherever the Greek 
word hovkoc, occurs. It is absolutely certain that 
a bondman, one bound to a master, bought with 
his money, or transferred to him as he'mg proper- 
ty, is the meaning of the original word. It is a 
term of specific meaning. It never signifies a hired 
servant. The word for hired servant in Luke xv. 
17, 19, is fiLGdiOL, paid servants, or, as the Latin 
Vulgate has it, mercenary, mercenaries, serving 
for wages. It is worthy of notice that in the 
process of time these words, "slave " and "hired 
servant," have changed places. As early as the 
old Itala, and later, in the days of Jerome, the 
latter part of the fourth and beginning of the fifth 



The Degradation of a Name. 19 

century, a hired servant was a mercenary^ one in 
whom the employer had no other interest than the 
contract of service warranted. The degraded re- 
lation is further shown in the parable of the prod- 
igal son. When the homeless wanderer " comes 
to himself " in the far country, finding himself re- 
duced to share with the swine in their coarse and 
revolting food, he remembered not the slaves of 
the family, for these were nearer to his own sta- 
tion and place, but the hired servants. " How 
many hired servants of my father's house have 
bread enough and to spare!" In the progress of 
the world, the " hired servant" is now the honor- 
able relation, and the "slave " is odious and infa- 
mous. 

In all ages and in all countries the existence of 
a principle which produces a true aristocracy in 
society has been the most important factor in the 
progress and elevation of mankind. An aristoc- 
racy is nothing more than the organization of the 
best members of the social compact. When the 
tests of superiority are virtue, gentleness, refine- 
ment, education, and usefulness, there can be no 
possible objection to the sentiment which produces 
and the fidelity which preserves this distinction 
among men. It is the legitimate product of the 
world's renowned maxim, " Knowledge is power," 
and there can be no possible injury to society as a 
whole by the maintenance of such distinctions. 

But when the possession of money, however ob- 
tained, whether dishonestly or righteously, by op- 



20 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

pressing the poor, the orphan and the widow, or 
by dihgence, frugaht}^, and self-denial — when 
wealth is the only test of aristocratic place and 
position, a great good is transformed into a great 
evil. We can have patience with the man who 
lives in the past and boasts of the great deeds of 
his ancestors. It is a laudable pride when the de- 
scendant proves himself worthy of those who have 
gone before him, but not otherwise. When it is 
made the basis of a claim to honors and privileges 
not possessed by the masses of the people, and 
when illustrious birth is made an excuse for a de- 
based life and degrading actions, the very refer- 
ence to the honors of a noble ancestry aggravates 
the crimes of those who dishonor their parentage 
while they cover themselves with infamy. 

But no man can rightly become indifferent to 
the sentiment that creates an aristocracy of worth. 
In early times, physical strength, united to cour- 
age and moral worth, designated the proper sub- 
jects for the possession of social distinctions, in 
titles conferred by kings, and honors pointed out 
by the voice of the people. The various grades 
of European nobility are founded upon supposed 
merit, not upon kingly caprice nor popular par- 
tiality. In the course of ages, here and there, in- 
stances have occurred in which the true principle 
of aristocracy has been overlooked, or despised, 
but the advancement of our race from the moral 
degradation of paganism to the present position of 
civilized society is largely due to the principle of 



The Degradation of a Name. 21 

honoring and ennobling the best members of the 
social compact. 

The Christian Church knows nothing of antag- 
onism to this aristocracy of merit. The estimate 
placed by St. Paul upon these social dignities 
would be sufficient to illustrate the importance of 
the principle. St. Paul does not disdain to men- 
tion the prominence of Tarsus, the city of his 
birth, as a claim that demands at least a hearing 
at the hands of his enemies. When under guard 
at Jerusalem, and accosted by the chief captain 
as " that Egyptian " which had gathered a mob of 
four thousand men and led them out into the wil- 
derness for purposes of robbery and murder 
(Acts xxi.), he does not hesitate to assert his re- 
spectability, and says: "I am a man which am a 
Jew of Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean 
city." But while he shows himself to be proud 
of the city of his nativity, he does not expect or 
desire exemption from righteous punishment, or 
escape from just responsibility on that account. 
He desires to be heard, to defend himself by the 
highest and grandest of all the forms of logic : the 
logic of truth. 

Prior to this time he had been imprisoned in 
Philippi, after having endured that most excruci- 
ating of all corporal sufferings, the chastisement 
of the rod. In the noise, confusion, and madness 
of the hour the apostle had no opportunity to 
make his voice heard, or he would doubtless have 
uttered the plea which was so effective the next 



22 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

day. (Actsxvi.) After the wonderful occurrences 
of the night, the earthquake, the open doors of the 
prison, the conversion of the jailer, and the sud- 
den alarm of the magistrates of Philippi, word is 
brought to Paul and Silas in the morning, that the 
magistrates have ordered their release. 

St. Paul exhibits a greatness of soul that as- 
tounds his enemies, particularly when they be- 
come aware of the cause of his refusal to depart. 
" They have beaten us openly uncondemned," he 
declares, and surely this was a charge of sufficient 
magnitude to cost any magistrate his official posi- 
tion; but Paul adds two words of fearful import 
to these unworthy officers: "being Romans." 
There was magic power in that expression, and 
when the guilty men heard of it, they were only 
too glad to humble themselves in the presence of 
these Jews whom they had despised a few hours 
before. "They came and besought them." That 
liberty of which they had deprived Paul and Silas 
was now tendered to them, with the most abject 
fear and the basest alarm, lest the Roman citizen, 
whose birthright of immunity from the lictor's rod 
had been grossly violated, should prosecute them 
in just retaliation, and bring the power of Caesar 
into exercise in vindication of Roman citizenship. 

Paul proceeds no further, however, than to hu- 
miliate the magistrates, while he gives to the gos- 
pel whatever there may be of more favorable con- 
sideration from the discovery of his social position. 
" I am a Roman citizen " was a truly noble rec- 



The Degradation of a JVame. 23 

ord. It did equal honor to the giver and to the 
receiver. Citizenship in a state that was master 
of the world was a partnership with all Rome in 
the glories of more than seven hundred years of 
the most wonderful history known to men. 

Once more the apostle has an opportunity to 
employ that magic phrase, " I am a Roman citi- 
zen," and on this occasion it protects him from 
the brutality of the Roman scourgers. The chief 
captain ordered Paul to be punished in order to 
find out the cause of the unreasonable madness of 
the mob that clamored for his life. Paul appeals 
to well-known principles of Roman jurisprudence. 
Although Caesar is all-powerful, the law is Cesar's 
mouthpiece. "Is it lawful for you to scourge a 
man that is a Roman, and uncondemned?" No 
Roman could be scourged, whether condemned or 
uncondemned. In this case, the language of St. 
Paul is the strongest possible statement of the out- 
rage, indignity, and crime which they were about 
to commit. The centurion sought the chief cap- 
tain and cautioned him. "Take heed what thou 
doest; for this man is a Roman." (Acts xxii. 26.) 
Fear lends celerity to the chief captain's move- 
ments. He interrogates the prisoner: " Tell me. 
Art thou a Roman?" "Yea." Then said the 
chief captain; "With a great sum obtained I this 
freedom." "But I," replied Paul, "was free- 
born." 

Whether the Roman citizenship of St. Paul was 
due to the honor conferred upon the city of Tar- 



24 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

sus, or whether it was a special favor conferred 
upon the family of St. Paul, is a question that can- 
not be definitely determined. There are weighty 
arguments on both sides, but the legitimate infer- 
ence from the conduct of the chief captain is in 
favor of the hypothesis of a family gift. When 
Paul informed his custodian that he was a native 
of Tarsus, " no mean city," the chief captain cer- 
tainly did not infer from that statement that Paul 
was a Roman citizen, which must have been the 
case if at his birth Tarsus had conferred that 
privilege. It is possible, however, that this citi- 
zenship was only conferred upon a particular class, 
upon those, for example, who were born in the 
higher stations of society. The language of Paul, 
" but I was freeborn," may be understood to ap- 
ply to the birthright of the Roman citizen, if we 
reject the word "free," supplied by our translat- 
ors, and read, in substance, "but I am a Roman 
citizen by birth." This is a sufficient contrast 
with the man who had bought his privileges with 
"a great sum." Plowever the fact may be, the 
greatness of the honor increased the ground of 
apprehension on the part of the chief captain. 
But this apostle, a nobleman of nature, did not 
seek to inflict punishment upon the petty officer 
who had endangered place and even life itself by 
dishonoring a Roman citizen. He makes no plea, 
utters no complaint, but, when occasion comes, 
tells his experience and preaches through his own 
past history the unsearchable riches of Christ. 



The Degradation of a Name. 25 

What shall we think of this apostle, then, when 
we find him announcing himself in Romans i. i 
as " the slave of Jesus Christ? " Is there a special 
ignominy, an incurable, indelible stain imparted 
by the word " slave ? ' ' Why then does the apostle 
use it in regard to himself? Why does he make 
the strange contrast in Galatians i. 10: " If I yet 
pleased men, I should not be the slave of Christ?" 
How shall we account for the peculiar form of ar- 
gument which asserts in Galatians iv. i: "Now 
I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differ- 
eth nothing from a slave, though he be lord of 
all?" In Titus he combines the word with the 
apostolic function: " Paul, a slave of God and an 
apostle of Jesus Christ." There is nothing pecul- 
iar to St. Paul in this use of the word. St. Peter 
calls all Christians the ^^ slaves of God" in i Peter 
ii. 16. So St. James (i. i.) calls himself "« slave 
of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ." So also 
Jude i. and St. John the Divine, Revelation i. i. 

Now these are no accidental facts. The word 
hovT^oq never meant anything but a bondman. 
The very essence of the word repels the idea of 
hired service. It is a permanent, lifelong bond 
that unites the servant to his lord. It is so abso- 
lutely settled, fixed, determined, that the servant 
never looks forward to a period when it shall 
cease to be. Every interest of the slave is bound 
up in the same bundle with his master's welfare. 
The consequence is that the bonds are reciprocal. 
The slave is bound to his lord, and the master is 



26 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

bound to the slave. Nothing that makes for the 
physical and moral welfare of the slave can be 
overlooked or neglected by the master without 
blame when that master is a pagan, or without 
sin when that master is a Christian. By the very 
ties that unite them — ties that are above the sordid 
nature of a money interest in the labor of the slave — 
there is nothing that can contribute to the benefit 
of either that is not shared in some degree by the 
other. 

That there were some Christian masters in 
Greece is evident by the story of the runaway 
slave, Onesimus. No refined and cultured mind 
can read St. Paul's letter to Philemon without feel- 
ing his estimate of the manhood of Paul enlarged 
and exalted. The slave Onesimus leaves his mas- 
ter, and in his wanderings, probably at Rome, he 
meets with Paul and listens to his preaching. The 
gospel finds its way to the heart of the fugitive, 
and he makes known to Paul the truth in regard 
to himself. He is a runaway. Perhaps he has 
taken the money of his master, and, like the prod- 
igal son, has spent all, and has no means of repay- 
ing it. He cannot go to Philemon, for he is afraid 
of his master's righteous anger. 

Paul volunteers to help him. Unlike the Gar- 
risons, Gerritt Smiths, and Henry Ward Beech- 
ers, who cast themselves in the very teeth of hu- 
man and divine law, and did all that they could to 
rob the Southern masters of their lawful property, 
St. Paul determined at once that Onesimus must 



The Degradation of a Name. 27 

return to his master. That was the first, necessa- 
ry, inevitable step. But the apostle further prom- 
ised to interpose in behalf of the runaway slave, 
in order to lessen the anger of the master, and to 
secure to the fugitive a kind reception. 

In this spirit Paul pleads most eloquently, ten- 
derly, and efficaciously with the injured master. 
He reminds him that Philemon himself belongs to 
Paul, as a convert to the gospel, and therefore owes 
him far more than he can ever repay. Neverthe- 
less, if Onesimus has taken his master's money, 
and if the master holds him responsible for the 
loss of his time, Paul generously offers to pay the 
whole debt, and binds himself to do so. 

Between the conduct and spirit of St. Paul and 
the conduct and spirit of the abolitionists of fifty 
years ago there is an " impassable gulf." The 
one is the conduct of a man who is himself the 
slave of Christ; the other is the conduct of those 
who are only hired servants^ who remain in the 
household just so long as the wages are forthcom- 
ing and the sumptuous fare holds out. 

It is impossible to read the Bible with attention 
without perceiving that the inherent sinfulness of 
human slavery is not taught in the word of God. 
So far from constituting even a defect in the char- 
acter of the men of olden times, the most illustri- 
ous men in sacred histor}'- are recorded as the 
owners of slaves, and no blame is imputed to them 
on that account. Abraham, the father of the faith- 
ful and the friend of God, was able to raise up 



28 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

a considerable army among the slaves born in his 
own house. Nor is there a solitary instance in 
which the mere possession of slaves is stated as a 
fault, much less a crime. 

It is scarcely conceivable that the case could 
have been otherwise. The time has been in the 
world's history, and the time now is in the history 
of many millions of human beings, that ,the alter- 
native existing for these millions is either slavery 
or perpetual barbarism. 



CHAPTER III. 

Man Was Created to Have Dominion over 
THE Earth. 

THAT the aboriginal races of men, occupying 
the soil for thousands of years, yet failing to 
accomplish the object of their creation, must give 
place to a higher type of mankind possessing both 
the genius and the energy to subdue the earth, and 
to exercise dominion over it, is a truth that is illus- 
trated by the history of every aboriginal race. In 
no quarter of the earth has a savage people been 
redeemed and civilized without bringing the pen- 
alty upon the defaulters. Within a very brief pe- 
riod the Australian tribes have furnished a striking 
proof of the operation of this law of nature. Mere 
tenants at will on the domain of Providence, neg- 
lecting, and stubbornly refusing to be assisted in 
learning and developing the powers of the soil upon 
which they had tented for ages, these people were 
incapable of obeying the terms of the Great Charter 
of Man as an occupant of earth. " Be fruitful, and 
multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it." 
This is the command given to the first man. The 
great charter of humanity, the tenure by which 
any race holds the earth on which they dwell, is 
given in the first chapter of Genesis, verse 26: 
"And God said, Let us make man in our image, 
after our likeness: and let them have dominion 

(29) 



30 The Gos-pel among the Slaves. 

over the fish of the sea, and ove?' the fowl of the 
air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and 
over every creef>ing thing that creef>eth uf)on the 
earth.^^ 

Dominion over the earth is the condition of 
man's residence upon the globe, and wherever 
any tribe or race shall cease to exercise that do- 
minion in the measure possible to the opportuni- 
ties of the age, that tribe or race will fade away 
and be no longer a cumberer of the ground. In 
proof of this proposition we cite the testimony of 
Rev. J. G. Wood, author of *' The Uncivilized 
Races of Men:" 

This one tribe is but an example of the others, all of whom 
are surely, and some not slowly, approaching the end of their 
existence. For many reasons we cannot but regret that entire 
races of men, possessing many fine qualities, should be thus 
passing away; but it is impossible not to perceive that they are 
but following the order of the world, the lower race preparing 
a home for the higher. 

In the present instance, for example, the aborigines per- 
formed barely half of their duties as men. They partially ex- 
ercised their dominion over the beasts and the birds, killing but 
not otherwise utilizing them. But, although they inhabited the 
earth, they did not subdue it nor replenish it. They cleared 
awa}' no useless bush or forest, to replace them with fruits; and 
they tilled no land, leaving the earth exactly in the same condi- 
tion that they found it. Living almostly entirely by the chase, 
it required a very large hunting ground to support each man, 
and a single tribe gained a scanty and precarious living on a 
tract of land sufficient, when cultivated, to feed a thousand 
times their number. In fact, they occupied precisely the same 
relative position toward the human race as do the lion, tiger, 
and leopard toward the lower animals, and suffered in conse- 
quence from the same law of extinction. 



Man to Have Dominion over the Earth. 31 

In process of time white men came to introduce new arts 
into their country, clearing away the useless forest, and covering 
the rescued earth with luxuriant wheat crops, sufficient to feed 
the whole of the aborigines of the country ; bringing also with 
them herds of sheep and horned cattle to feed upon the vast 
plains which formerly nourished but a few kangaroo, and to 
multiply in such numbers that they not only supplied the whole 
of their adopted land with food, but their flesh was exported to 
the mother country. 

The superior knowledge of the white man thus gave to the 
aborigines the means of securing their supplies of food, and 
therefore his advent was not a curse, but a benefit to them. 
But they could not take advantage of the opportunites thus of- 
fered to them, and, instead of seizing upon these new means of 
procuring the three great necessaries of human life — food, 
clothing, and lodging — they not only refused to employ them, 
but did their best to drive them out of the country, murdering 
the colonists, killing their cattle, destroying their crops, and 
burning their houses. 

The means were offered to them of infinitely bettering their 
social condition, and the opportunity given them, by substitut- 
ing peaceful labor for perpetual feuds, and of turning profes- 
sional murderers into food producers, of replenishing the land 
which their everlasting quarrels, irregular mode of existence, 
and carelessness of human life, had well-nigh depopulated. 
These means they could not appreciate, and, as a natural con- 
sequence, had to make way for those who could. The inferior 
must always make way for the superior, and such has ever been 
the case with the savage. I am persuaded that the coming of 
the white man is not the sole nor even the chief cause of the 
decadence of savage tribes. I have already shown that we can 
introduce no vice in which the savage is not profoundly versed, 
and feel sure that the cause of extinction lies within the savage 
himself, and ought not to be attributed to the white man, who 
comes to take the place which the savage has practically va- 
cated. ("Uncivilized Races," Vol. II., p. 790.) 

The proofs presented by Mr. Wood are such as 
no reasonable man can call in question. The Aus- 



32 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

tralians are nearly extinct; many tribes of them 
wholly so. The slow but steady steps that lead to 
the extinction of the great masses are replaced, in 
some instances, by an exceedingly rapid progress 
to oblivion. A missionary testifies as follows con- 
cerning the Barrabool tribe, the people whose his- 
tory occasioned the foregoing remarks of Mr. 
Wood. Mr. Loyd says: 

When I first landed in Geelong, in 1837, the Barrabool tribe 
numbered upward of three hundred sleek and healthj-looking 
blacks. A few months previous to mj leaving that town, in 
May, 1853, on casually strolling up to a couple of miam-miams, 
or native huts, that were erected upon the banks of the Burwan 
River, I observed seated there nine loobras (women) and one 
sickly child. 

Seeing so few natives, I was induced to ask after numbers 
of my old dark friends of early days — Ballyyang, the chief of 
the Barrabool tribe, the great Jaga-jaga, Panigerong, and many 
others, when I received the following pathetic reply : "Aha, 
Mitter Looyed, Ballyyang dedac [dead], Jaga-jaga dedac, Pani- 
gerong dedac," etc., naming many others; and, continuing their 
sorrowful tale, they chanted, in minor and funeral tones, in 
their own soft language, to the following effect: 

"The stranger white man came in his great swimming corong 
[vessel], and landed at Coraj'io with his dedabul boulganas 
[large animals], and his anaki boulganas (little animals). He 
came with his boom-booms (double guns), his white miam- 
miams [tents], blankets, and tomahawks; and the dedabul um- 
mageet [great white stranger] took away the long-inherited 
hunting grounds of the poor Barrabool coolies and their chil- 
dren," etc. 

Having worked themselves into a fit of passionate and ex- 
cited grief, weeping, shaking their heads, and holding up their 
hands in bitter sorrow, they exclaimed, in wild and frenzied 
tones: "Coolie! coolie! coolie! where are our coolies now.'' 
Where are our fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters.'' Dead! all 
gone! Dead." Then in broken English they said: " Nebber 



Mem to Have Dominion over the Earth. 33 

mind, Mitter Loojed, tir; bj'm bj all dem black fella come 
back white fella like it jou." Such is the belief of the poor 
aborigines of Victoria; hence we may fairly infer that they 
possess a latent spark of hope in their minds as to another and 
better world. 

Then, with outstretched fingers, they showed me the un- 
happy state of the aboriginal population. From their state- 
ment it appears that there existed of the tribe at that mo- 
ment only nine women, seven men, and one child. Their 
rapid diminvuion in numbers may be traced to a variety of 
causes. First, the chances of obtaining their natural food were 
considerably lessened by the entire occupation of the best 
grassed parts of the country, which originally abounded in 
kangaroos and other animals upon which they subsisted. The 
greater number of these valuable creatures, as an irresistible 
consequence, retired into the wild, uninhabitable countries, far 
from the hands of the white man and his destructive dogs. 

Having refused the aid of the government and the Mission- 
ary Societies' establishments on the River Burwan and Mount 
Rouse, the natives were, to a serious extent, deprived of animal 
food, so essential to a people who were ever exposed to the in- 
clemencies of winter and the exhausting heats of summer. In- 
fluenza was one of the greatest scourges under which they suf- 
fered. Then, among other evils attending their association 
with the colonists, the brandy, rum, and tobacco told fearfully 
upon their already vireakened constitutions. {Ibid., p. 7S9.) 

No proposition can be sustained by a greater 
amount of moral evidence than that which asserts 
that a mild and Christian form of domestic servi- 
tude would have preserved these tribes in the land 
of the living perhaps for ages. But the temper of 
the times was not in accord with that view of 
things. White men desired to have communica- 
tion with these dark-skinned barbarians only as 
their own necessities required. The white man was 
not responsible if the Australian bushman chose 
3 



34 The Gosj^el amo7ig the Slaves. 

to starve to death. There was work for him to 
do, and honest wages were paid to all that would 
work. But the accumulating energies of a thou- 
sand years found expression in the white man's 
"push " and " go," for all of which the Austra- 
lian had neither sympathy nor toleration. Unable 
to adapt himself to the changed world which white 
immigration had created; unwilling to place him- 
self in the position of a learner, that he might be 
taught how to accommodate himself to it; and ut- 
terly powerless to prevent the growth and estab- 
lishment of a state of things which meant nothing 
but death to him, the miserable savage groaned 
his life away, leaving his native land in the hands 
of another, but superior race. 

This is perfectly in accordance with all that we 
know of the divine policy in the government of 
this earth. Why has God placed in the bowels of 
the earth immense stores of the precious and the 
useful metals ; inexhaustible supplies of materials 
that must be sought out, prepared by human skill 
and industry for the purposes of a civilized society 
of men? The same great law of design may be 
seen exemplified in the mineral world that we find 
in the animal and vegetable kingdoms. Man was 
born to labor, and only by labor is the highest type 
of human character attained. We are baffled by 
difficulties, but encouraged by partial successes, 
led on, step by step, to further and greater effort, 
conscious, meanwhile, that no lawful exertion can 
prove an utter failure. Even the life that has been 



Man to Have Dominion over the Earth. 35 

devoted to noble purposes, and yet failed of actual 
attainment of the object of lifetime study and re- 
search, can be pronounced in no sense a lifetime of 
labor lost. No man toils after this sort without en- 
riching his generation, and his race, while his own 
personal exaltation is the legitimate and unfailing 
reward of his exertions. 

Will it be said that a race of human beings who 
have no capacity to appreciate an argument of this 
kind have, nevertheless, the right to prevent others 
from developing the resources of the soil? Has 
the American Indian, for example, any moral right 
to hold as his own ten thousand acres per capita, 
when multitudes of honest, hard-working men 
have not a yard of earth that they can call their 
own? Shall the unknown and unmeasured capac- 
ity of the soil be doomed to perpetual barrenness 
because the Indian delights in hunting buffalo and 
deer? 

There are people mad enough to answer all of 
these inquiries in the affirmative, but there is an 
unwritten code of moral sentiment that writes its 
decrees in great events and answers all criticisms 
by the founding of empires and the creation of a 
nobler civilization. The horseman who carried a 
letterbag across the continent was compelled to 
give way to the driver of the stage coach, and he 
to the steamboat and the railroad, and these in 
turn to the captured forces of nature serving the 
pen of the ready writer with electric power, span- 
ning a continent in a moment of time. Other un- 



36 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

developed forces lie asleep in the bosom of nature, 
ready to be awakened whenever the superior man 
shall break the locks and throw off the chains that 
have hitherto preserved these agencies until the 
fullness of time should come, and the wants of 
mankind should call for their resurrection. 

That the African race has been made a partaker 
in the progress of the nineteenth century is due to 
the institution which bound them to masters who 
exacted profitable labor at their hands. In no oth- 
er country in the known world has the negro race 
increased in num.bers. From 757,178 in 1790 the 
American negroes increased to nearly four millions 
and a half in seventy years. The various census 
reports that have been made of the West Indian 
negroes show a stationary and, in many places, a 
decreasing population. Left to themselves in the 
tropics, these sensual races earn a bare subsistence 
amid the most abundant provisions of nature. 

What is there in the character of the African to 
make his case an exception to all others among 
the black tribes of men? If, in a tropical land 
where one day's work in seven will serve to pro- 
cure food, and little clothing is required by reason 
of the climate — if in a land so endowed by nature 
we find the inhabitants absolutely destitute of the 
common necessities of life, what must be the con- 
dition of the same race when compelled to do bat- 
tle with the forces of a superior and dominant 
race? 

Can the negro maintain himself in the presence 



Man to Have Dominion over the Earth. 37 

of the Caucasian ? So long as the ties engendered 
by their former history and experience endure, 
there will be partial progress and partial develop- 
ment. But the continuance of the struggle must, 
sooner or later, bring into the field the same moral 
and physical features which have removed a kin- 
dred population in every country that man has 
conquered from the desolation and ruin of the 
Adamic fall. 

That the negro has many fine qualities of head 
and heart, and that these qualities were recognized 
by their masters in the days of slavery, it will be 
the purpose of this volume to show. 



CHAPTER IV. 
A Brief Historical Sketch. 

IN the year 1842 Rev. C. C. Jones published in 
Savannah, Ga., a book on " The ReHgious In- 
struction of the Negroes in the United States." 
From this excellent work we copy a short summary 
of the missionary movements among the slaves prior 
to the beginning of the nineteenth century. After 
giving the number of slaves and free persons of 
color at 757,178 in the census of 1790, the author 
says: 

Having brought distinctly to view tliis multitude of people 
introduced amongst us in the inscrutable providence of God, the 
original stock being in a state of absolute heathenism^ we may in- 
quire into the efforts made for their religious instruction. 

1673. Mr. Baxter published his " Christian Directory," in 
which he has a chapter of " Directions to Those Masters in For- 
eign Plantations Who Have Negroes and Other Slaves; Being 
a Solution of Several Cases about Them." 

The first direction calls upon masters to " understand well how 
far your power over your slaves extendeth and what limits God 
hath set thereto." 

" Remember that they have immortal souls, and are equally 
capable of salvation with yourselves; and therefore you have 
no power to do anything which shall hinder their salvation. 
Remember that God is their absolute owner, and you have none 
but a derived and limited property in them ; that they and you 
are equally under the government and laws of God; that God 
is their reconciled, tender father, and if they be as good doth 
love them as well as you, and that they are the redeemed ones 
(38) 



A Brief Historical Sketch. 39 

of Christ. Therefore so use them as to preserve Christ's right 
and interest in them." 

The second direction: "Remember that jou are Christ's 
trustees, or the guardians of their souls; and that the greater 
jour power is over them the greater jour charge is of them and 
jour dutj for them. So must jou exercise both jour power and 
love to bring them to the knowledge and the faith of Christ, 
and to the just obedience of God's commands." 

The third: " So serve jour necessities bj jour slaves as to 
prefer God's interest and their spiritual and everlasting happi- 
ness. Teach them the waj to heaven, and do all for their souls 
which I have before directed jou to do for all jour other serv- 
ants. Though JOU maj make some difference in their labor 
and diet and clothing, jet none as to the furthering of their sal- 
vation. If thej be infidels, use them so as tendeth to win them 
to Christ and the love of religion, bj showing them that Chris- 
tians are less worldlj, less cruel and passionate, and more wise 
and charitable and holj and meek than anj other persons are. 
Woe to them that bj their crueltj and covetousness do scandal- 
ize even slaves and hinder their conversion and salvation!" 

The seventh and last direction: " Make it jour chief end in 
bujing and using slaves to win them to Christ and save their 
souls. Do not onlj endeavor it on the bj when jou have first 
consulted jour own commoditj, but make this more of jour end 
than jour commoditj itself; and let their salvation be far more 
valued bj jou than their service; and carrj jourself to them 
as those that are sensible that thej are redeemed with them bj 
Christ from the slaverj of Satan, and maj live with them in the 
libertj of the saints in glorj." 

The works of this eminent servant of God had an extensive 
circulation, and these directions maj have been productive of 
much good on the plantations of those owners into whose hands 
thej fell. 

1630. Fortj-four jears after the settlement of Connecticut, 
the assemblj forwarded answers to the inquiries of the lords of 
the Committee of Colonies, wherein thej saj: "There are but 
few servants and fewer slaves; not above thirtj in the colonj. 
There come sometimes three or four blacks from the Barbadoes, 
which are sold for £22 each. Great care is taken of the instruc- 
tion of the people in the Christian religion bj ministers catechis- 



40 The Gospel mnong the Slaves. 

ing and preaching twice every Sabbath and sometimes on lec- 
ture days; and also by masters of families instructing their 
children and servants which the law commands them to do." 

1701. "The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in 
Foreign Parts " was incorporated under William III. on the 
i6th day of June, 1701, and the first meeting of the society under 
its charter was the 27th day of June of the same year. Thomas 
Lord Bishop, of Canterbury, Primate and Metropolitan of all 
England, was appointed by his Majesty the first President. 

This society was formed with the view, primarily, of supply- 
ing the destitution of religious institutions and privileges among 
the inhabitants of the North American colonies, members of 
the Established Church of England ; and secondarily, of extend- 
ing the gospel to the Indians and negroes. 

It had been preceded by a company incorporated by Charles 
II. in 1661, for '■'■the Propagation of the Gospd amongst Heathe7t 
Nations of Neiv England and the Parts Adjacent in America; " 
which, however, did not accomplish much ; the design, for the 
times then present and the necessities of the colonies, being too 
narrow. The Honorable Robert Boyle was first President of 
this company, and it was his connection with this society which 
led him to a deeper interest in the defense and propagation of 
the Christian religion, and he therefore left in his will an an- 
nual salary, forever, for the support of eight sermons in the 
year for proving th-e Christian religion against notorious infidels; 
and he requires that the preachers employed " shall be assisting 
to all companies and encouraging them in any undertaking for 
propagating the Christian religion in foreign parts." 

" The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign 
Parts " entered upon its duties with zeal, being patronized by the 
king and all the dignitaries of the Church of England. 

They instituted inquiries into the religious condition of the 
colonies, responded to " by the Governors and persons of the 
best note " (with special reference to episcopacy); and they per- 
ceived that their work "consisted of three great branches: the 
care and instruction of our people settled in the colonies, the 
conversion of the Indian savages, and the conversion of the ne- 
groes." Before appointing missionaries they sent out a travel- 
ing preacher, the Rev. George Keith, an itinerant missionary, 
who associated with himself the Rev. John Talbot. Mr. Keith 



A Brief Historical Sketch. 41 

preached between North Carolina and Piscataqua River in 
New England, a tract above eight hundred miles in length, and 
completed his mission in two years, and returned and reported 
his labors to the society. 

The annual meetings of this society were regularly held from 
1702 to 1819, and iiS sermons preached before it by bishops of 
the Church of England, a large number of them distinguished 
for piety, learning, and zeal. The society still exists. 

The efforts of the society for the religious instruction of the 
negroes are brietly as follows: 

In June, 1702, the Rev. Samuel Thomas, the first missionary, 
was sent to the colony of South Carolina. The society designed 
he should attempt the conversion of the Yemassee Indians; but 
the Governor, Sir Nathaniel Johnson, appointed him to the 
, care of the people settled on the three branches of Cooper 
River, making Goose Creek his residence. He reported his 
labors to the society, and said " that he had taken much pains 
also in instructing the negroes and learned twenty of them to 
read." He died in October, 1706. 

Di\ Lejeau succeeded him in 1706, and found "parents and 
masters indued with much good Avill and a ready disposition to 
have their children and servants taught the Chiistian religion." 
He instructed and baptized many negroes and Indian slaves. 
His communicants in 1714 arose to seventy English and eight 
negroes. Dr. Lejeau died in 171 7, and was succeeded perma- 
nently by Rev. Mr. Ludlam, who began his mission with great 
diligence. " There were in his parish a large number of ne- 
groes, natives of the place, who understood English well. He 
took good pains to instruct several of them in the principles of 
Christian religion, and afterward admitted them to baptism. He 
said if the masters of them would heartily concur to forward so 
good a work, all those who have been born in the country might 
without much difficulty be instructed and received into the 
Church. Mr. Ludlam continued his laboi's among the negroes 
and every year taught and baptized several of them ; in one 
year eleven, besides some imilattoesP 

The Indian war checked the progress of the society's mis- 
sion for several y^ars. The parishes of St. Paul's (1705), St. 
John's (1707), St. Andrew's and St. Bartholomew's (1713), and 
St. Helen's (1712) received missionaries. Mr. Hasell was settled 



42 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

in the last-named parish, and the inhabitants wei-e " 565 Avhites, 
950 negroes, 60 Indian slaves, and 20 fi-ee negroes." 

Rev. Gilbert Jones was appointed missionarj of Christ 
Church Parish in 171 1. He used great pains to persuade the 
masters and mistresses to assist in having their slaves instructed 
in the Christian faith, but found this good work lay under dif- 
ficulties as jet insuperable. He wrote thus concerning this 
matter: " Though laboring in vain be very discouraging, jet (by 
the help of God) I will not cease mj laboi-s ; and if I shall gain 
but one proseljte, shall not think much of all mj pains." He 
was succeeded in 1722 bj Rev. Mr. Pownal. Tw:o jears after 
he reported in his parish 470 free born and above 700 slaves, 
some of which understood the English tongue; but very few 
knew anything of God or religion. 

In the parish of St. George, taken out of St. Andrew's, the 
church stands twenty-eight miles from Charleston. 

1719. Mr. Peter Tustian was sent as missionary', but soon re- 
moved to Maryland. The Rev. Mr. Varnod succeeded him in 
1723. A year after his arrival, at Christmas, he had nearly fifty 
communicants, and, what was remarkable, seventeen negroes. 
He baptized several grown persons, besides children and ne- 
groes belonging to Alexander Skeene, Esq. The Rev. Mr. 
Taylor, missionary at St. Andrew's Parish in South Carolina, re- 
ported to the society " the great interest taken in the religious 
instruction of their negroes by Mi-s. Haige and Mrs. Edwards, 
and their remarkable success, fourteen of Avhom on examir^a- 
tion he baptized." The clergy of South Carolina, in a joint let- 
ter, acquainted the society with the fact " that Mr. Skeene, his 
lady, and Mrs. Haige, his sister, did use great care to have their 
negroes instructed and baptized." And the Rev. Mr. Varnod, 
missionary, had baptized eight negro children belonging to Mr. 
Skeene and Mrs. Haige, and he writes to the society that "at 
once he had nineteen negro communicants." 

Mr. Neuman was sent as a missionary to North Carolina in 
1722. He reported sometime afterward that he had "baptized 
269 children, i woman, 3 men, and 2 negroes who could say the 
Creed, the Lord's Prayer and Ten Commandments, and had 
good sureties for their further information." 

The Rev. Mr. Beekett, missionary in Pennsylvania in J 723, 
i^eported that he had baptized " two negro slaves." 



A Brief Historical Sketch. 43 

In 1709 Mr. Huddlestone was appointed schoolmaster in New 
York Citj. He taught forty poor children out of the society's 
funds, and publicly catechised in the steeple of Trinity Church 
every Sunday in the afternoon, " not only his own scholars, but 
also the children and slaves of the inhabitants, and above one 
hundred persons usually attended him." 

The society established also a catechising school in New York 
City in 1704, in which city there were computed to be about 
1,500 negro and Indian slaves. The society hoped their example 
would be generally followed in the colonies. Mr. Elias Neau, 
a French Protestant, was appointed catechist. He was very zeal- 
ous in his duty, and many negroes were instructed and baptized. 
In 1712 the negroes in New York conspiring to destroy all the 
English discouraged the work of their instruction. The con- 
spiracy was defeated and many negroes taken and executed. 
Mr. Neau's school was blamed as the main occasion of the bar- 
barous plot. Two of Mr. Neau's school were charged with the 
plot ; one was cleared and the other was proved to have been in 
the conspiracy, but guiltless of his master's murder. " Upon 
full trial the guilty negroes were found to be such as never came 
to Mr. Neau's school; and what is very observable, the persons 
whose negroes were found most guilty were such as were the 
declared opposers of making them Christians." In a short time 
the cry against the instruction of the negroes subsided. The 
Governor visited and recommended the school. Mr. Neau died 
in 1733, much regretted by all who knew his labors. He was 
succeeded by Rev. Mr. Wetmore, who afterward was appointed 
missionary to Rye, in New York. After his removal " the rec- 
tor, church wardens, and vestry of Trinity Church, in New York 
City," requested another catechist, there being about 1,400 ne- 
gro and Indian slaves. A considerable number of them had been 
instructed in the principles of Christianity by the late Mr. Neau, 
and had received baptism and were communicants in their 
Church. The society complied with this request and sent over 
Rev. Mr. Colgan in 1726, who conducted the school with success. 

Mr. Honeyman, missionary in 1724 in Providence, R. I., had 
baptized in two years 80 persons, of whom 19 were grown, 3 
negroes, 2 Indians, and 2 mulattoes. 

In Narragansett the congregation was reported to be 160 
in 1720, with twelve Indian and black servants. 



44 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

At Marblehead the missionary reported (in 1725), having bap- 
tized two negroes, "a man about twenty-five years old and a girl 
twelve, and that a whole family in Salem had conformed to the 
Church." 

The society looked upon the instruction and conversion of 
the negroes as a principal branch of their care, esteeming it a 
great reproach to the Christian name that so many thousands of 
persons should continue in the same state of pagan darkness 
under a Christian government and living in Christian families 
as they lay befoi-e under in their own heathen countries. The 
society immediately from their first institution strove to pro- 
mote their conversion, and inasmuch as their income would not 
enable them to send numbers of catechists sufficient to instruct 
the negroes, yet they resolved to do their utmost and at least to 
give this work the mark of their highest approbation. They 
wrote, therefore, to all their missionaries that they should use 
their best endeavors at proper times to instruct the negroes, and 
should especially take occasion to recommend it zealously to the 
masters to order their slaves at convenient times to come to 
them that they might be instructed. These directions had a 
good effect, and some hundreds of negroes had been instructed, 
received baptism, and been admitted to the communion and 
lived very orderly lives. (Pages 6-14.) 

The Bishop of London's " Letter to the Masters 
and Mistresses of Families in the English Planta- 
tions Abroad, exhorting them to encourage and 
promote the instruction of their negroes in-the 
Christian faith," and a similar Letter to the Mis- 
sionaries Engaged in Preaching the Gospel in the 
English Plantations," exhibit the interest of at least 
one bishop of the Church of England as early as 
1727. The work of the " Society for the Propaga- 
tion of the Gospel in Foreign Parts " receives par- 
ticular mention ; and the author brings down his 
sketch to the commencement of the work among- 



A B^'ief Historical Sketch. 45 

the negroes under the direction of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church: 

Dean Stanhope, of Canterbury, states in his sermon in 1714 
that success had attended the efforts of the society, and speaks 
of " children, servants, and slaves catechised." 

Bishop Berkeley was in the colony of Rhode Island from 1728 
till late in 1730, and he also preached a sermon before the soci- 
ety February 18, 1731, in w^hich he thus speaks of the negroes: 
"The negroes in the government of Rhode Island are about 
half as many more than the Indians, and both together scarcely 
amount to a seventh part of the whole colony. The religion of 
these people, as is natural to suppose, takes after that of their 
masters: some few are baptized; several frequent the different 
assemblies ; and for the greater part, none at all. " An an- 
cient antipathy to the Indians, whom, it seems, our first plant- 
ers (therein as in certain other particulars affecting to imitate 
Jews rather than Christians) imagine they had a righ-t to treat 
on the foot of Canaanites or Amalekites, together with an ir- 
rational contempt of the blacks as creatures of another species, 
who had no right to be instructedor admitted to the sacraments, 
have proved a main obstacle to the conversion of these poor 
people. To this may be added an erroneous notion that be- 
ing baptized is inconsistent with a state of slavery. To unde- 
ceive them in this particular, which had too much weight, it 
seemed a proper step, if the opinion of his Majesty's Attoi-ney 
and Solicitor-general could be procured. This opinion they 
charitably sent over, signed with their own hands, which was 
accordingly printed in Rhode Island and dispersed through the 
plantations. I heartily wish it may produce the intended effect. 
It must be owned that our reformed planters, with respect to the 
natives and the slaves, might learn from the Church of Rome 
how it is their interest and duty to behave. Both French and 
Spaniards take care to instruct both them and their negroes in 
the Popish religion, to the reproach of those who profess a 
better." 

From a " Proposal to Establish a College in Bermuda," first 
published in 1725, the bishop remarks: "Now the clergy sent 
over to America have proved, too many of them, very meanly 
qualified, both in learning and morals, for the discharge of their 



46 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

office. And, indeed, little can be expected from the example or 
instruction of those who quit their native country on no other 
motive than that they are not able to procure a livelihood in it, 
which is known to be often the case. To this may be imputed 
the small care that hath been taken to convert the negroes of 
our plantations, who, to the infamy of England and scandal of 
the world, continue heathen under Christian masters and in 
Christian countries, which would never be if our planters were 
rightly instructed and made sensible that they disappointed 
their own baptism by denying it to those who belong to them ; 
that it would be of advantage to their affairs to have slaves who 
should 'obey in all things tlieir masters according to the flesh, 
not with eyeservice as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart 
as fearing God ; ' that gospel liberty consists with temporal 
servitude; and that their slaves would only become better slaves 
by being Christians." (Berkeley's Works. Copied by Rev. W. 
W. Eells.) 

In 1 741 Archbishop Seeker, after enumerating other suc- 
cesses, adds: " In less than forty years great multitudes, on the 
whole, of negroes and Indians, were brought over to the Chris- 
tian faith." 

Bishop Drummond in 1754 notices the negroes in his sei-mon 
before the society, and insists upon the duty and safety of giv- 
ing them the gospel. 

The amiable Porteus, in 1783, when Bishop of Chester (after- 
ward Bishop of London), took a lively interest in this work, and 
preached a sermon before the society in support of it, which 
may be found in his works. 

In the year 1783 and the following, soon after the separation 
of our colonies from the mother country, the society's opera- 
tions ceased, leaving in all the colonies forty-three missionaries, 
two of whom were in the Southern States, one in North and one 
in South Carolina. The affectionate valediction of the society 
to them was issued in 1785. Thus terminated the connection of 
this noble society with our country, which, from the foregoing 
notices of its efforts, must have accomplished a great deal for 
the religious instruction of the negro popvilation. 

Thus it is perceived that the negroes were not forgotten by 
the Church of Christ in England. Were they remembered by 
the Church of Christ in the colonies themselves.'' We have no 



A Brief Historical Sketch. 47 

records of missions or of missionary stations established by or 
in any of the colonies in behalf, exclusively, of the negroes up 
to the year 1738. 

-,>/i738. The Moravian or United Brethren were the first who 
formally attempted the establishment of missions exclusively to 
the negroes. A succinct account of their several efforts down 
to the year 1790 is given in the report of the " Society for the 
Propagation of the Gospel among the Heathen," at Salem, N. C, 
October 5, 1837, by Rev. J. Renatus Schmidt, and is as follows: 

"A hundred years have now elapsed since the Renewed 
Church of the Brethren first attempted to communicate the gos- 
pel to the many thousand negroes of our land. In 1737 Count 
Zinzendorf paid a visit to London, and formed an acquaintance 
with Gen. Oglethorpe and the trustees of Georgia, with whom 
he conferred on the subject of the mission to the Indians, which 
the brethren had already established in that colony in 1735. 
Some of these gentlemen were associates under the will of Dr. 
Bray, who had left funds to be devoted to the conversion of the 
negro slaves in Sovith Carolina; and they solicited the Count to 
procure them some missionaries for this purpose. On his ob- 
jecting that the Church of England might hesitate to recognize 
the ordination of the Brethren's missionaries, they referred the 
question to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Potter, who gave 
it as his opinion ' that the Brethren, being members of an Epis- 
copal Church whose doctrines contained nothing repugnant to 
the Thirty-nine Articles, ought not to be denied free access to 
the heathen.' This declaration not only removed all hesitation 
from the minds of the trustees as to the Brethren amongst the 
slave population of the West Indies — a great and blessed work, 
which has, by the gracious help of God, gone on increasing even 
to the present day." 

The same year Brother Peter Boehler was deputed to com- 
mence the desired mission, with Brother George Schulius as 
his assistant. They set out by way of London in February-, 
1738, and repaired, in the first instance, to Georgia, hoping to be 
provided with means for the prosecution of their journey by the 
colony of the Bi-ethren already established there. Obstacles 
however being interposed through the interested views of cer- 
tain individuals, this mission failed, and our brethren, settling at 
Purisburg, took charge of the Swiss colonists and their children 



48 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

in that town, Georgia not being at that period a slaveholcling 
colony. In 1739 Schulius departed this life. In 1740 Peter 
Boehler emigrated to Pennsylvania with the whole Georgia 
colony, of which he was minister, because they were required to 
bear arms in the war against the Spaniards, which had recently 
broken out. In 1747 and 1748 some Brethren belonging to Beth- 
lehem undertook several long and difficult journeys through 
Maryland, Virginia, and the borders of North Carolina in oi'der 
to preach the gospel to the negroes, who, generally speaking, 
received it with eagerness. Various proprietors, however, avow- 
ing their determination not to suffer strangers to instruct their 
negroes, as they had their own ministers whom they paid for 
that purpose, our bi-ethren ceased from their efforts. It appears 
from the letters of Brother Spangenberg, who spent the greater 
part of the year 1749 at Philadelphia, and preached the gospel 
to the negroes in that city, that the labors of the Brethren 
amongst them were not entirely fruitless. Thus he writes in 
1 751 : " On my arrival in Philadelphia I saw numbers of negroes 
still buried in all their native ignorance and darkness, and my 
soul was grieved for them. Soon after some of them came to 
me, requesting instruction, at the same time acknowledging their 
ignorance in the most affecting manner. They begged that a 
weekly sermon might be delivered expressly for their benefit. 
I complied Avith their request, and confined myself to the most 
essential truths of Scripture. Upward of seventy negroes at- 
tended on these occasions, several of Avhom were powerfully 
aAvakened, applied for further instruction and expressed a de- 
sire to be united to Christ and his Church by the sacrament of 
baptism, which was accordingly administered to them." 

At the Provincial Synod which was held in Pennsylvania in 
1747 Brother Christian Fi-ohlich was commissioned to take 
charge of the negroes of New York, M^ho had evinced a great 
desire for the gospel, and of whom several had been already 
won for the Redeemer by means of their attendance on the min- 
istry of the word. In 1751 he visited the scattei-ed negroes in 
New Jersey, by whom he was everywhere received with joy, 
and preached Christ crucified to a hundred of them at once with 
considerable effect, besides conversing with them at their work. 

A painting is preserved at Bethlehem in which the eighteen 
firstfruits from the heathen who had been brought to Christ by 



A Brief Historical Sketch. 49 

the instrumentality of the brethren, and had departed in the 
faith prior to the year 1747, are represented, dressed in their 
native costume and standing before the throne of Christ with 
palms in their hands, with the inscription beneath : " These are 
redeemed from among men, being the first fruits unto God and 
to the Lamb." (Rev. xiv. 4.) Amongst the number are Johan- 
nes, a negro of South Carolina, and Jupiter, a negro from New 
York. The graves of colored Christians who have died in the 
Lord are also met with in several of our burial grounds in the 
North American congregations. 

At the request of Mr. Knox, the English Secretary of State, 
an attempt was made to evangelize the negroes of Georgia. In 
1774 the brethren, Lewis MuUer, of the Academy at Niesky,and 
George Wagner were called to North America, and in the year 
following, having been joined by Brother Andrew Broesing, of 
North Carolina, they took up their abode at Knoxboro, a 
plantation so called for its proprietor, the gentleman above men- 
tioned. They were, however, almost constant sufferers from 
the fevers which prevailed in these parts, and Muller finished 
his course in October of the same year. He had preached the 
gospel with acceptance to both whites and blacks, yet without 
any abiding results. The two remaining brethren being called 
upon to bear arms on the breaking out of the war of independ- 
ence, Broesing repaired to Wachovia, in North Carolina, and 
Wagner set out in 1779 for England. 

In the great Northampton revival, under the preaching of 
Dr. Edwards in 1735-36, when for the space of five or six weeks 
together the conversions averaged at least "four a day," Dr. 
Edwards remarks: " There are several negroes who, from what 
was seen in them then and what is discernible in them since, 
appear to have been truly born again in the late remarkable 
season." 

At a meeting of the General Association of the colony of 
Connecticut in 1738 " It was inquired whether the infant slaves 
of Christian masters may be baptized in the right of their mas- 
ters, they solemnly promising to train them in the nurture and 
admonition of the Lord, and whether it is the duty of such mas- 
ters to offer such children and thus religiously to promise. 
Both questions were affirmatively answered." (Records as re- 
ported by Rev. C. Chapin, D.D.) 

4 



50 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

Of the condition of the negroes about this time in New En- 
gland it has been said: " Their lot was far from being severe. 
Thej were often bought by conscientious persons, for the pur- 
pose of being well instructed in the Christian religion. Thej 
had universally the enjoyment of the Sabbath as a day of rest 
or of devotion." 

Looking over the old records of " Entryes for Publications" 
{i. e., for marriages) " within the town of Boston," I observed 
the following, among others: 

" 1707. Negroe. — Essex, a Negro man of Mr. William Clark, 
Esqre.; Gueno, a R. Wo. of Walle Winthrop, Esqre. Negro. 
Will, reg. serv't of Wm. Webster: Betty, i-eg'r serv't of Wm. 
Keen, March 9th. 

" 1710. Negroes. — Charles and Peggy, Negro Serv'ts of Sam'l 
Hill; Esther, Negro serv't of Robert Gutridge, Oct'r 27." 

By which it would appear that the community was not indif- 
ferent to their condition, inasmuch as their marriages were pub- 
lic and legalized. 

1747. Direct efforts for the religious instruction of negroes, 
continued through a series of years, were made by Presbyte- 
rians in Virginia. They commenced with the Rev. Samuel 
Davies, afterward President of Nassau Hall, and the Rev. John 
Todd, of Hanover Presbytery. 

Mr. Davies began his ministry in Hanover in 1747, and left 
Virginia about 1773 or 1 774. Mr. Davies, four or five years after 
his settlement in Hanover, " found it impossible to afford even a 
monthly supply of preaching to the congregation organized by 
him. Accordingly he sought an assistant in Mr. John Todd, a 
young preacher from Pennsylvania, who was installed in the 
upper part of Hanover November 12, 1752." 

In a letter addressed to a friend and a member of the " Soci- 
ety in London for Promoting Christian Knowledge among the 
Poor," in the year 1755, he thus expresses himself: "The poor, 
neglected negroes, who are so far from having money to pur- 
chase books that they themselves are the property of others; 
who were originally African savages, and never heard of the 
name of Jesus and his gospel until they arrived at the land of 
their slavery in America; whom their masters generally neglect, 
and whose souls none care for, as though immortality were not 
a privilege common to them as with their masters — these poor. 



A Brief Historical Sketch. 51 

unhappy Africans are objects of my compassion, and I think 
the most proper objects of the society's charity. The inhab- 
itants of Virginia are computed to be about 300,000 men, one- 
half of which number are supposed to be negroes. The number 
of those who attend my ministry at particular times is uncer- 
tain, but generally about three hundred who give a stated at- 
tendance; and never have I been so struck with the appearance 
of an assembly as when I have glanced my eye to that part of 
the meeting-house where they usually sit, adorned (for so it has 
appeared to me) with so many black countenances, eagerly at- 
tentive to every word they hear, and frequently bathed in tears. 
A considerable number of them (about a hundred) have been 
baptized, after a proper time for instruction, having given credii 
ble evidence not only of their acquaintance with the important 
doctrines of the Christian religion, but also a deep sense of them 
in their minds, attested by a life of strict piety and holiness. As 
they are not sufficiently polished to dissemble with a good grace, 
they express the sentiments of their souls so much in the lan- 
guage of simple nature and with such genuine indications of 
sincerity that it is impossible to suspect their professions, es- 
pecially when attended with a truly Christian life and exemplary 
conduct. There are multitudes of them in different places who 
are willing and eagerly desirous to be instructed and to embrace 
everv opportunity of acquainting themselves with the doctrines 
of the gospel ; and though they have generally very little help 
to learn to read, yet to my agreeable surprise many of them, by 
dint of application in their leisure hours, have made such prog- 
ress that they can intelligibly read a plain author, and especially 
their Bibles; and pity it is that any of them should be without 
them." Mr. Davies furnished the negroes with what books he 
could procure for them, and requested from the society a supply 
of Bibles and Watts's psalms and hymns, which enabled them to 
gratify their peculiar taste for psalmody. " Sundry of them have 
lodged all night in my kitchen, and sometimes when I have 
awakened about 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning a torrent of saci-ed 
harmony has poured into my chamber and carried my mind 
away to heaven. In this seraphic exercise some of them spend 
almost the whole night. I wish, sir, you and other benefactors 
could hear some of these sacred concerts. I am persuaded it 
would surprise and please you more than an oratorio or a St. 



52 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

Cecilia's day." He observes: "The negroes, above all the 
human species that ever I knew, have an ear for music and a 
kind of ecstatic delight in psalmody, and there are no books thej 
learn so soon or take so much pleasure in as those used in that 
heavenly part of divine worship." 

On one sacramental occasion " he had the pleasure of seeing 
forty of them around the table of the Lord, all of whom made a 
creditable profession of Christianity, and several of them gave 
usual evidence of sincerity, and he believed that more than 
I, GOO negroes attended on his ministry at the different places 
where he alternately officiated." 

Mr. Davies writes Dr. Bellamy in 1757: " What little success 
I have lately had has been chiefly among the extremes of gen- 
tlemen and negroes. Indeed, God has been remarkably work- 
ing among the latter. I have baptized about 150 adults, and at 
the last sacramental solemnity I had the pleasure of seeing the 
table graced with about sixty black faces. They generally be- 
have well, as far as I can hear, though there are some instances 
of apostasy among them." The counties in which Mr. Davies 
labored wei'e Hanover, Henrico, Goochland, Carolina, and 
Louisa. 

" The Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts," 
already noticed, in 1745 established a school in Charleston, S. C, 
under the direction of Commissary Garden. It flourished greatly 
and seemed to answer their utmost wishes. It had at one time 
sixty scholars and sent forth annually about twenty young ne- 
groes well instructed in the English language and the Christain 
faith. This school was established in St. Philip's Church and 
some of its scholars Avere living in 1822, of orderly and decent 
characters. (Bishop Meade and Dr. Dalcho.) 

The year 1747 Avas marked in the colony of Georgia by the 
authorized introduction of slaves. Twenty-three representatives 
from the different districts met in Savannah, and after appoint- 
ing Major Horton President they entered into sundry resolu- 
tions, the substance of which was *' that the owners of slaves 
should educate the yoving and use every possible means of mak- 
ing religious impressions upon the minds of the aged, and that 
all acts of inhumanity should be punished by the civil authorit}'." 

1764. The Rev. Ezra Stiles, D.D., afterward President of 
Yale College, and Dr. Samuel Hopkins undertook the educa- 



A Brief Histoi'ical Sketch. 53 

tion of two apparently promising negroes with a view to the 
ministry, but it was finally a failure. (Dr. Plumer's report.) 

1770. While Dr. Stiles was pastor in Newport, R. I., there 
were many African slaves in that town. " Of eighty communi- 
cants in his Church in that town, seven wei-e negroes. These 
occasionally met by his direction for religious improvement in 
his study." 

Methodism was introduced into this counti-y in New York in 
1766, "and the first missionaries were sent out by Mr. Wesley in 
1769. One of these, Mr. Pilmore, in a letter to Mr. Wesley 
from New York in 1770, says: "The number of blacks that at- 
tend the preaching affects me much." The first regular Con- 
ference was held in Philadelphia in 1773; number of ministers 
ten, and of members 1,160. From this j'ear to 1776 there was a 
great revival of religion in Virginia under the preaching of the 
Methodists in connection with Rev. Mr. Jarratt, of the Episco- 
pal Church, which spread through fourteen counties in Virginia 
and two in North Carolina. One letter states " the chapel was 
full of white and black;" another, " hundreds of negroes were 
among them with tears streaming down their faces." At 
Roanoke another remarks: " In general the w-hite people were 
within the chapel and the black people without." 

1780. At the Eighth Conference in Baltimore, the following 
question appeared in the minutes: " Question 25. Ought not the 
assistant to meet the colored people himself and appoint as 
helpers in his absence proper white persons, and not suffer them 
to stay late and meet by themselves.^ Answer. Yes." Under 
the preaching of Mr. Garretson in Maryland, " hundreds both 
white and black expressed their love of Jesus." 

1786. The first return of colored members distinct from 
white occurs in the minutes of this year, and then yearly after- 
ward — white, 18,791 ; colored, 1,890. "It will be perceived from 
the above," says Dr. Bangs in his " History of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church," " that a considerable number of colored per- 
sons had been received into the Church, and were so returned 
in the minutes of the Conference." Hence it appears that at an 
early period of the Methodist ministry in this country it had 
turned its attention to this part of the population. 

Mr. Rankin, writing on the general state of Methodism in 
the colonies at the commencement of hostilities, observes: " In 



54 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

May, 1777, we had forty preachers in the different circuits and 
about 7,000 members in the society, besides many hundreds of 
negroes who were convinced of sin, and many of them happy in 
the love of God." (" Life of Coke," page 33.) 

In the year 1786 the following case of conscience was over- 
tured from Donegal Presbytery, in the Synod of New York 
and Philadelphia, namely : " Whether Christian masters or mis- 
tresses ought in duty to have such children baptized as are under 
their care, though born of parents not in the communion of any 
Christian Church? " 

Upon this overture " the Synod are of opinion that Christian 
masters and mistresses whose religious professions and conduct 
are such as to give them a right to the ordinance of baptism for 
their own children, may and ought to dedicate the children of 
their household to God in that ordinance when they have no 
scruple of conscience to the conti-ary." (Minutes, page 413, and 
Minutes of General Assembly, page 97.) 

And on the next page (414) it was overtured " whether 
Christian slaves having children at the entire direction of un- 
chi-istian masters, and not having it in their power to instruct 
them in religion, are bound to have them baptized ; and Avhether 
a gospel minister in this predicament ought to baptize them. 
The Synod determined the question in the affirmative. 

17S7. The minutes of the Methodist Conference for this 
year furnish the following qviestion and answer, indicative of 
continued interest in the colored population: " Question 17. What 
directions shall Ave give for the promotion of the spiritual wel- 
fare of the colored people.'' Answer. We conjure all our min- 
isters and preachers by the love of God and the salvation of 
souls, and do require them by all the authority that is invested 
in us to leave nothing undone for the spiritual benefit and sal- 
vation of them within their respective circuits or districts; and 
for this purpose to embrace every opportunity of inquiring into 
the state of their souls, and to unite in society those who appear 
to have a real desire of fleeing from the wrath to come ; to meet 
such in class, and to exercise the whole Methodist discipline 
among them." Number of colored members, 3,893. 

1790. Again: "Question. What can be done in order to in- 
struct poor children, white and black, to read.'' Answer. Let us 
labor as the heart and soul of one man to establish Sunday 



A Brief Historical Sketch. 55 

schools in or near the place of public worship. Let persons be 
appointed bj the bishops, elders, deacons, or preachers to teach 
gratis all that will attend and have a capacity to learn, from 6 
in the morning till lo, and from 2 p.m. till 6, where it does not 
interfere with public worship. The council shall compile a 
proper schoolbook to teach them learning and pietj." The ex- 
periment was made, but it proved unsuccessful and was discon- 
tinued. Number of colored members this year, 11,682, 

The Methodist is the only denomination which has preserved 
returns of the number of colored members in its connection. I 
find it impossible to make any estimate of the number in con- 
nection with the other denominations. The Methodists met 
with more success during this period in the Middle and Southern 
States than in the Northern, and as they paid particular atten- 
tion to the negroes large numbers were brought under their in- 
fluence. 

The first Baptist Church in this country was founded in 
Providence, R. I., by Roger Williams in 1639. Nearly one hun- 
dred years after the settlement of America " only seventeen 
Baptist Churches had arisen in it." The Baptist Church in 
Charleston, S. C, was founded in 1690. The denomination ad- 
vanced slowly through the Middle and Southern States, and in 
1790 they had Churches in them all. Revivals of religion were 
enjoyed, particularly one in Virginia, which commenced in 1785 
and continued until 1791 or 1792. "Thousands were converted 
and baptized, besides many who joined the Methodists and Pres- 
byterians." A large number of negroes were admitted to the 
Baptist Churches during the seasons of revival, as Avell as on 
ordinary occasions. They were, however, not gathered into 
Churches distinct from the whites south of Pennsylvania, ex- 
cept in Georgia. Brief notices of Churches composed exclu- 
sively of negroes will be given in the second period of this 
sketch. Before the Revolution the negroes in Virginia at- 
tended in crowds the Episcopal Church, there being no other 
denomination of Christians of consequence in the State; but 
upon the introduction of other denominations they went off to 
them. Old Robert Carter, or Counselor, or King Carter, as he 
was commonly called among the richest men in the State, own- 
ing some 700 or 800 slaves and large tracts of land, built Christ's 
Church in Lancaster County, Virginia, and reserved one-fourth 



56 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

for his servants and tenants. He was himself baptized, and aft- 
erward emancipated a large number of his negroes, and living 
fourteen or fifteen jears a Baptist embraced and died in the faith 
of Swedenborg. 

Our author proceeds to give a brief summary 
of the moral and religious results of the war of in- 
dependence. However salutary in a political sense 
the struggle of the colonies with the mother coun- 
try might be, the effect of a war which divided 
whole communities and often set brother against 
brother and father against son could only be dis- 
astrous to the religious welfare of the people. War 
carries on Its front an aggregation of horrors ; and 
leaves in its wake death, desolation, and moral cor- 
ruption in every community. It might be appro- 
priately said that the American war of the Revolu- 
tion, although right and just from every point of 
view, undoubtedly left all moral and religious 
principles in a state of solution, mixed up in a tur- 
bid current of appalling wickedness. It is not our 
purpose to examine the methods taken to redeem 
and purify the newly erected states. We have in 
these pages to deal exclusively with the interests 
of the African part of the population. 



CHAPTER V. 

A Brief Historical Sketch (Continued). 

THE author whom we quoted in the last chapter 
has given an impartial review of the special 
labors of missionaries of various evangelical 
churches among the negroes. We cannot con- 
dense the information he has given in smaller space, 
and therefore we copy from his pages : 

1790. The interest awakened in Virginia by the labors of 
President Davies continued throughout this period, as appears 
by the following letter from the venerable Dr. Alexander, of 
Princeton : 

" In addition to the efforts made by the Rev. Mr. Davies, of 
Hanover, I would mention the name of a faithful coadjutor in 
this ileld, the effects of whose labors are still apparent in Cub 
Creek congregation in Charlotte County, Virginia. The min- 
ister to whom I allude was the Rev. Robert Henry, a native of 
Scotland, who was for many years the pastor of Cub Creek and 
Briery congregations united, although their distance apart was 
not less than twenty miles. This gentleman possessed very 
humble talents as a preacher, blundered much, and sometimes 
lost himself, so that he had to conclude abruptly. He was so 
absent that on one occasion after preaching, finding the horse of 
another person hitched where he commonly left his own beast, 
he mounted and rode him without noticing the mistake. He 
was notoriously a man of prayer; for Avhen he turned out of the 
public road to go to the house where he usually lodged the 
evening before he preached at Briery, he could be heard pray- 
ing aloud long before he was in sight, and sometimes he became 
so much engaged that his old bald horse would come up and 
stop at the gate whilst he was still in earnest supplication. 

"This man judiciously turned much of his attention to the 
negroes, and to them his ministry Avas attended with abxmdant 
success. Many were converted and gathered into the Church 
at Cub Creek. As this congregation was sitviated on the north- 
ern bank of Staunton River, where the land is very fertile, there 

(57) 



58 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

were se^^eral large estates, possessing many slaves, within reach 
of the house of worship where he preached." 

The Rev. Henry Lacj succeeded Mr. Henry, during whose 
ministrations at Cub Creek about two hundred were added to 
the Church. There were sixty belonging to the Church under 
the care of Mr. Cob. (Rev. W. S. Plumer's report.) 

Dr. Alexander proceeds: " Many years after Mr. Henry's 
death I was settled for several years in this county, and preached 
at the same places where Mr. Henry had labored. At Cub 
Creek I found about seventy black communicants, twenty-four 
of whom belonged to one estate. They were, in general, as or- 
derly and as constant in their attendance on the word preached 
as the whites. Some of them had been received in Mr. Henry's 
time, but others afterward. The session of the Church appoint- 
ed two or three leading men among them to be a sort of over- 
seers or suj")erintendents of the rest, and we found that they per- 
formed their duties faithfully. 

" It was in this same county, and very much to the large col- 
ored congregation at Cub Creek, that Dr. Rice labored after I 
left the place. He was when first settled pastor of Cub Creek 
and Bethesda, a new congregation which grew out of the former. 
As he was willing to bestow a part of his time entirely to the 
blacks, ike Committee on Missions of the General Assembly ap- 
pointed him for about three months in the year to labor among 
them, and I know that he was much encouraged in his work, 
had some very promising 3'oung converts, and the number of 
communicants was not diminished in his time. The present 
pastor (1840) is the Rev. Clement Read, a native of the county. 
He has labored there and at Bethesda for many years past. In 
general the negroes were follovjers of the Baptists in Virginia, and 
after awhile, as they permitted many colored men to preach, the 
great majority of them went to hear preachers of their own 
color, which was attended with many evils. 

" In some parts of the State the Methodists also paid much at- 
tention to the negroes and received many of them into their so- 
ciety, but still professors among the Baptists were far more 
numerous. In many instances those who had been brought 
into the Presbyterian Church were swept off by one or the other 
of these sects, but as long as I was acquainted with the con- 
gregation at Cub Creek I never knew one of them to leave 



A Brief Historical Sketch. 59 

their own communion for another. We had the testimony of 
their masters and mistresses to their conscientiousness, fidelity, 
and diligence. The lady who owned twenty-five of the com- 
municants selected all her house servants from the number, 
though not herself a communicant in the Presbyterian Church. 
And on several estates, instead of overseers, some of these pious 
men were appointed to superintend the labor of the other field 
servants." 

The Rev. Henry Patillo, pastor of the Grassy Creek and 
Nutbush Churches, in Greenville County, North Carolina, la- 
bored successfully among the negroes about this time, the good 
effects of whose efforts continued to be felt for many years after. 
(Dr. Plumer's report to Synods of North Carolina and Virginia.) 

1792. Toward the close of this year the first colored Baptist 
Church in the city of Savannah began to build a place of wor- 
ship. The corporation of the city gave them a lot for that pur- 
pose. The origin of this Church., the parent of several others, 
is briefly as follows: George Leile, sometimes called George 
Sharp, was born in Virginia about 1750. His master sometime 
before the American war removed and settled in Burke County, 
Georgia. Mr. Sharp was a Baptist and a deacon in a Baptist 
Church, of which Rev. Matthew Moore was pastor. George 
was converted and baptized under Mr. Moore's ministry. The 
Church gave him liberty to preach. He began to labor with 
good success at different plantations. Mr. Sharp gave him his 
freedom not long after he began to preach. For about three 
years he preached at Brampton and Yamacraw, in the neighbor- 
hood of Savannah, On the evacuation of the country in 1782 
and 1783 he went to Jamaica. Previous to his departure he 
came up from the vessel lying below the city in the river, and 
baptized an African woman by the name of Kate belonging to 
Mrs. Evmice Hogg, and Andrew, his wife Hannah, and Hagar, 
belonging to the venerable Mr. Jonathan Bryan. 

The Baptist cause among the negroes in Jamaica owes its 
origin to the indefatigable and pious labors of this worthy man, 
George Leile. It does not come within my design to introduce 
an account of his efforts in that island. I shall add only that in 
1 784 he commenced preaching at Kingston and formed a Church, 
and in 1791 had gathered a company of 450 communicants and 
coinmenced the erection of a commodious meeting-house. It 



6o The Gospel among the Slaves. 

finally cost, with steeple and bell, £4,000. He was alive in 1810 
and about sixty jears of age. 

About nine months after George Leile left Georgia, Andrew, 
surnamed Bryan, a man of good sense, great zeal, and some 
natural elocution, began to exhort his black brethren and friends. 
He and his followers were reprimanded and forbidden to en- 
gage fui-ther in religious exercises. He would, however, pray, 
sing, and encourage his fellow-worshipei's to seek the Lord. 
Their evening assemblies were broken up and those found 
present were punished with stripes. Andrew Bryan and Sam- 
son, his brother, converted about a year after him, were twice 
imprisoned, and they with about fifty othei-s were whipped. 
When publicly whipped, and bleeding under his wounds, An- 
drew declared that he rejoiced not only to be whipped, but would 
freely suffer death for the cause of Jesus Christ; and that while 
he had life and opportunity he would continue to preach Christ. 
He was faithful to his vow, and by patient continuance in -ivell- 
doing he put to silence and shamed his adversaries, and influential 
advocates and patrons were raised up for him. Liberty was 
given Andrew by the civil authority to continue his religious 
meetings under certain regulations. His master gave him the 
use of his barn at Brampton, three miles from Savannah, where 
he preached for two years with little interruption. 

Not long after Andrew began his ministry he was visited by 
the Rev. Thomas Barton, who baptized eighteen of his follow- 
ers on profession of their faith. The next visit was from the 
Rev. Abraham Marshall, of Kioka, who was accompanied by a 
young colored preacher by the name of Jesse Peter, from the 
vicinity of Augusta. On the 20th of January, 1788, Mr. Marshall 
ordained Andrew Bryan, baptized forty of his hearers, and con- 
stituted them with others, sixty-nine in number, a Church, of 
which Andrew was pastor. Such was the origin of the first col- 
ored Baptist Church in Savannah. (" Holcombe's Letters," 
"Analytical Repository," and " Benedict's History of Baptists," 
from which the preceding account has been taken.) 

Before dismissing this notice, I cannot forbear introducing 
the remarks of Dr. Holcombe on Andrew Bryan, written in 
1812: "Andrew Bryan has, long ago, not only honorably ob- 
tained liberty, but a handsome estate. His fleecy and well-set 
locks have been bleached by eighty winters; and, dressed like 



A Brief Historical Sketch. 6i 

a Bishop of London, he rides, moderately coi-pulent, in his 
chair, and with manly features, of a jetty hue, fills every per- 
son to whom he gracefully bows with pleasure and veneration, 
by displaying in smiles even rows of natural teeth, as white as 
ivory, and a pair of fine black eyes, sparkling with intelligence, 
benevolence, and joy. In giving daily thanks to God for his 
mercies, my aged friend seldoin forgets to mention the favora- 
ble change that has of late yeai-s appeared through the lower 
parts of Georgia, as well as of South Carolina, in the treatment 
of servants." (Letter 17.) 

1793. The African Church in Augusta, Ga., w-as gathered by 
the labors of Jesse Peter, and was constituted this year by Rev. 
Abraham Marshall and David Tinsley. Jesse Peter was also 
called Jesse Golfin on account the name of his master, who lived 
twelve miles below Augusta. 

The number of Baptists in the United States this year was 
73,471. Allowing one-fourth to be negroes, the denomination 
would embrace between eighteen and nineteen thousand. 

1795. The returns of the colored members in the Methodist 
denomination from 1791 to 1795, inclusive, were 12,884, 13,871, '\/^' 
16,227, 13)^14? ^"d 12,170. 

Several Annual Conferences recommended a general fast^ to 
be held in March, 1796, and in the enumeration of blessings to 
be invoked the last mentioned was " that Africans and Indians 
may help to fill the pure Church of God." And in the matters 
recommended as subjects of grateful remembrance in the day 
of thanksgiving for the last Thursday in October, 1796, the last 
mentioned is: "And for African liberty; we feel grateful that 
many thousands of these poor people are free and pious." 

1797. The Methodists reported in 1796 11,280 colored mem- 
bers. The recapitulation of the numbers for 1797 is given by 
states, and as it is a most interesting document, I insert it entire, 
so far as it relates to the negroes. 

State. Members. 

Virginia 2,490 

Noi-th Carolina 2,071 ^ 

South Carolina 890 • 

Georgia 148 

Tennessee 42 

Kentucky 57 



State. Members. 

Massachusetts 8 

Rhode Island 2 

Connecticut 15 

New York 238 

New Jersey 127 

Pennsylvania 198 

Delaware 923 

Maryland 5)io6 



Making a total of 12,215 



62 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

Nearly one-fourth of the whole number of members were col- 
ored. There were three onlj in Canada. 

Dr. Bang adds: "It will be seen bj the above enumeration 
that there were upward of 12,000 people of color attached to the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. These were chieflj in the South- 
ern States, and had been gathered principally from the slave 
population. At an early period of the Methodist ministry in 
this country it had turned its attention and directed its efforts 
toward these people with the view to bi-ing them to the enjoy- 
ment of gospel blessings. The pi-eachers deplored with the 
deepest sympathy their unhappy condition, especially their en- 
slavement to sin and Satan ; and while they labored vinsuccess- 
fully by all prudent means to effect their disenthrallment from 
their civil bondage, they were amply rewarded for their evan- 
gelical efforts to raise them from their moral degradation, by 
seeing thousands of them happily converted to God. These 
efforts added much to the labors of the preachers, for such was 
the condition of the slaves that they were not permitted, on 
working days, to attend the public administration of the word 
in company with their masters ; and hence the preachers de- 
voted the evenings to their instruction after the customary labors 
of the day were closed. And although at first there was much 
aversion manifested by the masters toward these benevolent ef- 
forts to elevate the condition of the slaves, yet, witnessing the 
beneficial effects of the gospel upon their hearts and lives, they 
gradually yielded their prejudices and encouraged the preach- 
ers in their labors, assisted in providing houses to accommo- 
date them in their worship, and otherwise protect them in their 
religious privileges. While, therefore, the voice of the preach- 
ers was not heard in favor of emancipation from their civil 
bondage, nor their remonstrances against the evils of slavery 
heeded, the voice of truth addressed to the understandings and 
consciences of the slaves themselves was often heard with be- 
lieving and obedient hearts and made instrumental in their de- 
liverance from the shackles of sin and the bondage of Satan. 
Those who were thus redeemed were enrolled among the peo- 
ple of God, and were consequently entitled to the privileges of 
the Church of Christ. In some of the Northern cities houses 
of worship were erected for their special and separate accommo- 
dation, and they were put under the pastoral charge of a white 



A Brief Historical Sketch. 63 

preacher, who was generally assisted by such colored local 
preachers as maj have been raised up among themselves; for 
many such, from time to time, possessing gifts of edification, 
were licensed to preach the gospel to their colored brethren, 
and some of these have been eminently useful. In the more 
southern states, where the municipal regulations in respect to 
slaves are more severe, some portion of the churches where the 
white population assemble is usually set apart for the blacks. 
Their behavior has generally been such as to insure the con- 
fidence of their masters and the protection of their civil rulers, 
though they labored under the disabilities incident to a state of 
servitude." 

1799. This year is memorable for the commencement of that 
extraordinary awakening which, taking its rise in Kentucky and 
spreading in various directions and with different degrees of 
intensity, was denominated " the great Kentucky revival." It 
continued for above four years, and its influence was felt over a 
large portion of the Southern States. Presbyterians, Metho- 
dists, and Baptists participated in this work. In this revival 
originated the camp meetings which gave a new impulse to 
Methodism. From the best estimates the number of negroes 
received into the different communions during this season must 
have been between four and five thousand. 

1800. The number of members in connection with the Meth- 
odists was 13,452. The bishops of the M. E. Church were au- 
thorized to ordain African preachers, in places where there 
were houses of worship for their use, who might be chosen by 
the majority of the male members of the Society to which they 
belonged and could procure a recommendation from the preach- 
er in charge and his colleagues on the circuit, to the oflice of 
local deacons. Richard Allen, of Philadelphia, was the frst 
colored man who received orders under this rule. 

1803. The second African Church in Savannah was formed 
out of the first, December 26, 1802, and Henry Cunningham 
elected pastor and ordained to the work of the ministry Janua- 
ry I, 1803. On January 2, 1803, another Church was formed 
out of the first, called the Ogechee Colored Baptist Church, 
and Henry Francis appointed to supply it. Henry Cunningham 
was a slave, but obtained his freedom. He is still the pastor of 
the Second African Church, far advanced in life, and from age 



64 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

unable to attend to his sacred duties, except to a very limited 
extent. He still enjoys, as he has always enjoyed, the confi- 
dence and esteem of all classes of the community in which he 
has lived so long, so virtuously, and so usefully. The Metho- 
dist Conferences reported 22,453 colored members, an increase 
over the last year of 3,794) 

In the report of the congregation of the Moravian Brethren 
at Graceham, Md., for 1801, Rev. Frederick Schlegel, under date 
of April 19, writes: -'As a number of negroes had for several 
Sundays successively attended our divine worship, I collected 
thirteen of them and, after a suitable address, prayed with them. 
They were very devout, and declared it to be their sincere desire 
to be truly converted. A few Sundays after, Brother Browne 
(who preached the gospel to the negroes on Staten Island), be- 
ing here on a visit, preached to thirty negroes, and after the 
sermon baptized two children. The transaction made such an 
impression on two of the adult negroes that they requested that 
this rite might be immediately performed on them. They were 
however satisfied with the reasons assigned for deferring it till 
they had received further instruction in Christianity. A very 
affecting scene took place at the close of the meeting. A ne- 
gro overseer, who was present, kneeled down with his people, 
and in an impressive prayer thanked God for what their souls 
had enjoyed -that day. The number of negroes that attended 
increased almost every week. At their request a regulation 
was made according to which , separate meetings will be held 
with them at stated times. Opportunities will also be offered 
them for private conversation on religious subjects. Some chil- 
dren and a few adults were in the sequel baptized. (" History of 
the Church of the Brethren," Vol. II., pp. 292, 293.) 

1805. An African Church was formed in Boston under the 
ministry of Thomas Paul, a colored man. Their house of wor- 
ship was finished in 1806; the lower story was fitted up for a 
schoolroom. 

1806. The Baptist Churches in South Carolina were 130; the 
number of ministers, 100; and communicants, 10,500, of whom 
perhaps 3,500 were negroes. 

1807. The Hanover Presbytery (Virginia) addressed a circu- 
lar to the Churches under their care solemnly exhorting them 
not to neglect their duty to their servants. (" Virginia Maga- 
zine," Vol., III., p. 159.) 



A Brief Historical Sketch. 65 

1809. The Abyssinian or African Church was formed in the 
city of New York, the house of worship in Anthony Street; 
also an African Church in Philadelpliia, suppUed for a time by 
Henry Cunningham, of Savannah, Ga. The estimate of col- 
ored communicants in the Baptist Churches of Virginia this 
year I set down at 9,000. 

1810. By the reports of the state of the congregations of the 
Protestant Episcopal Church in South Carolina, made in the 
convention, there were 199 colored communicants in 3 Church- 
es — viz., St. Philip's and St. Michael's, Charleston, 120 and 73, 
and Prince George's Winyaw, 6. The other reports do not dis- 
tinguish between white and colored cominunicants. 

1813. There were 40,000 negroes connected with the Baptist 
denomination in the states of Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, 
North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. The historian 
remarks that "among the African Baptists in the Southern 
States there ai-e a multitude of preachers and exhorters whose 
names do not appear on the minutes of the Associations. They 
preach principally on the plantations to those of their own color, 
and their preaching, though broken and illiterate, is in many 
cases highly useful." 

1816. There was a report adopted by the General Assembly 
of the Presbyterian Church in the United States on the ques- 
tion, " Ought baptism on the promise of the master to be ad- 
ministered to the children of slaves.'' " as follows: 

"I. That it is the duty of the rhasters who are members of 
the Church to present the children of parents in servitude to 
the ordinance of baptism, provided they are in a situation to 
train them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, thus 
securing to them the rich advantages which the gospel pi-omises. 

" 2. That it the duty of Christian ministers to inculcate this 
doctrine and to baptize all children when presented to them by 
their masters." (" Minutes of the Assembly.") 

The subject of Missions to the negroes occupied the atten- 
tion of the General Assembly, but no plan of Missions was car- 
ried into effect. Dr. Rice, of Virginia, was employed by the 
Committee on Missions in the Assembly for a part of the year, 
and his labors were encouraging, as already stated by Dr. Alex- 
ander in his letter^ and as appears also from the Minutes of the 
Assembly, p. 372, 
5 



66 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

The Colonization Society was formed this year, and I notice 
it as furnishing an index to the feelings of many in relation to 
the improvement of the negro race. 

The Methodists reported this year 42,304 colored members, 
and a decrease of 883 since 1815. Dr. Bangs says: "This was 
owing to a defection among the colored people in the city of 
Philadelphia, by which upward of 1,000 in that city withdrew 
from our Church and set up for themselves, with Richard Al- 
len, a colored local preacher, and an elder in the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, at their head. By habits of industry and 
economy, though born a slave in one of the Southern States, 
he had not only procured his freedom, but acquired considera- 
ble wealth, and since he had exercised the office of a preacher 
and an elder, obtained great influence over his brethren in the 
Church. At the secession they organized themselves into an 
independent body, under the title of the "African Methodist / 
Episcopal Church." At their first General Conference in April,/ 
1816, Richard Allen was elected bishop. At the Conference, in 
1828 Morris Brown was elected joint superintendent with Al- 
len ; and on the death of Allen, in 1836, Edward Watters was 
elected joint superintendent with Brown. The colored congre- 
gations in New York City followed the example. They adopted 
the itinerant mode of preaching and have spread themselves in 
different parts of Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Mary- 
land, and Delaware. There are also some in the Western 
States, and a few in Upper Canada. In the more southern 
states the Allenites could make no favorable impression, as 
their preachers were not recognized by the laws of the states, 
and the slave population who were members of our Church 
had the character of our white ministry pledged as a guarantee 
for their good behavior." 

1818. Under the report of colored members for this year, the 
same writer remarks: "That while there was an increase of 
white members amounting to 9,035, there was a decrease of 
4,261 of the colored members." He states that this was owing 
to the Allenite secession, although not all who through its in- 
fluence declared themselves independent attached themselves 
to the Allenites. 

1819. The increase of colored members this year was but 24. 
(1S19, 39,174; 1S18, 39,150.) The smallness of the increase is ac- 



A Brief Historical Sketch. 67 

counted for bj the secession of the negroes in New York City, 
amounting to " 14 local preachers and 929 private members, in- 
cluding class leaders, exhorters, and stewards." 

A report dated June 14, 1819, of a committee of the Board of 
Managers of the Bible Society of Charleston, S. C, respecting 
the progress and present state of religion in South Carolina, 
will cast some light on the subject before us: "From the best 
information the committee have been able to obtain, they find 
that the gospel is now preached to about 613 congregations of 
Protestant Christians ; that there are about 292 oi-dained clergy- 
men who labor amongst them, beside a considerable number of 
domestic missionaries, devoted and supported by each denomi- 
nation, who dispense their labors to such of the people as remain 
destitute of an established ministry. From actual returns, and 
cautious estimates where such returns have not been obtained, 
it appears that in the state there are about 46,000 Protestants 
who receive the holy communion of the Lord's Supper. In the 
city of Charleston upward of one-fourth of the communicants 
are slaves or free persons of color; and it is supposed that in the 
other parts of the state the proportion of such communicants 
may be estimated -at about one-eighth. In every Church they 
are freely admitted to attend on divine service. In most of the 
Churches distinct accommodations are provided for them, and 
the clergy in general make it a part of their pastoral care to de- 
vote frequent and stated seasons for the religious instruction of 
catechumens from amongst the black population." 

It may be proper to state in connection with this report that 
from the beginning, with scarcely an exception, the negroes 
applying for admission into the Churches have been under the 
instruction of white ministers or members; have been baptized 
and have partaken of the Lord's Supper at the same time with 
white candidates and members, and been subject to the same 
care and discipline; no distinction being made between the two 
classes of members in respect to the privileges and discipline of 
the Churches. 

The Episcopal Church reported in part the number of col- 
ored members from 1812 to 1818, the majority in Chai-leston. 
The highest number reported was in 1817, 328. In 1818 there 
were 289. 

1820. Bishop McKendree presented an address to the Gen- 



68 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

eral Conference, at Baltimore, in which he took notice of "the 
condition of the slaves." The number of colored members, dj 
the Minutes of the Conference, was 40,558, 

The census of 1800 gave us 893,041 negro slaves and 110,555 
free, making a total of 1,003,596; that of iSiowas 1,191,364 slaves 
and 195,643 free; total negro population, 1,387,007; that of 1820, 
1,538,064 slaves and 244,020 free; total, 1,782,084. 

The importation of Africans into our country ceased, by 
law, on January i, 1808. The trafSc was abolished by Virginia 
in 1778; Pennsylvania, in 1780; Massachusetts, in 1787; Connec^"- 
icut and Rhode Island, in 1788. And before the year 1820 
measures were taken by all the present free states, in which 
slavery had existed, for bringing the system to a close. What 
special efforts, if any, were made in these states by the Church- 
es, or by Societies, for the religious instruction of the negroes 
thus obtaining their freedom, I have had no means of ascer- 
taining with accuracy. From the best information in posses- 
sion special efforts were very few and very limited. 

As a nation we were scarcely reviving from the Revolution 
and the excitement of the formation and establishment of our 
Constitution when we were involved in a war with France, 
which, with its influences, and what was worse, the infidelity 
and skepticism which our previous connection with that nation 
introduced among us, most seriously affected the interests of 
religion, and the decline was perceptible in a greater or less 
degree over the whole Union. Not long after, our troubles 
with England began, which resulted in a four years' war. Not- 
withstanding these interruptions, the Spirit of God was poured 
out largely in different parts of the country. Indeed, the first 
quarter of the nineteenth century witnessed a remarkable re- 
vival of the missionary spirit in the American as well as En- 
glish Churches. Many societies were organized on a large and 
liberal scale (in whose existence the world has reason to rejoice) 
for the spreading of the gospel, both at home and abroad, as 
well as by the circulation of the Scriptures and auxiliary pub- 
lications, as by the living teacher. 

This spirit wrought in the heai-ts of ministers and people 
generally, and a new and mighty impulse was given to religion. 
In the South it awakened many to see the spiritual necessities 
of the negroes. Many ministers began to preach particularly 



/ 



A Brief Historical Sketch. 69 

and more faithfully to them and to attempt a regular division 
of their time on the Sabbath, between the whites and blacks. 
Attempts were also made in some parts of the South to teach 
the negroes letters, so as to enable them to read the word of 
God for themselves. These schools were short-lived, but the 
fact of their existence evidences that there was considerable in- 
terest felt in their religious instruction. Houses of public wor^ 
ship, exclusively for the use of the negroes, were erected in 
many of the chief towns, and they worshiped in them under 
the care of white or colored teachers. In numbers of white 
churches space was allowed for the accommodation of the ne- 
groes, in the galleries or in the body of the house below; and 
within sight and hearing of the country churches, in some 
pleasant grove fitted up with booths, with a stand or pulpit for 
preaching, the negroes would ofttimes be seen assembling for 
worship between services or in the afternoon. There were 
planters also who undertook to read and explain the Scriptures, 
and pray with their people. 

It is not too much to say that the religious and physical con- 
dition of the negroes Vvcre both improved during this period. 
Their increase was natural and regular, ranging every ten years 
between 34 and 36 per cent. As the old stock from Africa died 
out of the country, the grosser customs, the ignorance and pa- 
ganism of Africa died Avith them. Their descendants, the coun- 
try born, were better looking, more intelligent, more civilized, 
and more susceptible of religious impressions. Growing up 
under the eyes and in the families of owners, they became more 
attached to them, were identified in their households and ac- 
companied them to church. The gospel was preached to mas- 
ters and servants; servants having no religion to renounce grew 
up in the belief of that of their masters. On the whole, how- 
ever, but a minority of the negroes, and that a small one, at- 
tended regularly the house of God, and, taking them as a class, 
their religious instruction was extensively and seriously neg- 
lected. 



CHAPTER VI. 
A Brief Historical Sketch (Concluded). 

DR. JONES brings down his summary of facts 
to the year 1842. We quote the record as 
follows : 

1821. The Methodist Episcopal Church reported this jear 
42,059 colored members in the United States, and their num- 
bers gradually increase. 

1822. The account of the labors of the Moravian Brethren 
by Mr. Schmidt, already referred to, brings down their labors 
to 1837, and is as follows: 

" In January, 1822, a Female Auxiliary to the Missionary So- 
ciety was formed at Salem, and at their special request an at- 
tempt was made to collect the negroes into separate congrega- 
tions of their own — a plan which had, indeed, long been an ob- 
ject of desire. Brother Abraham Steiner was commissioned to 
make a commencement of the work by holding a monthly 
preaching on a plantation about three miles distant from Salem, 
where the negro communicants resided. At his first sermon 
there, March 24, 1822, more than fifty black and colored people 
were present. After a fervent prayer he discoursed on the ^ 
words of our Saviour: ' The Son of man is come to seek and to 
save that which was lost.' With this monthly preaching, which 
was well attended by the negroes, catechetical instruction in 
the great truths of our religion was combined. On May 19th 
the Lord's Supper was celebrated with the three persons who 
were already communicants as the first fruits of this infant ne- 
gro flock. Great stillness and devotion continued to mark the 
attendance of the negroes on divine worship, yet few sought for 
closer fellowship, so that this little flock has never to the pres- 
ent day numbered more than twenty members. 

"A negro chapel was built in 1823 at the expense of the Fe- 
male Auxiliary and consecrated by Brother Benade, the resi- 
(70) 



A Brief Historical Sketch. 71 

dent bishop, Decqmber 28, in the presence of nearly a hun- 
dred negroes and colored people and many meinbers of the 
congregation at Salem. This was followed by the baptism of a 
married negro woman, and the solemnities of the day were 
closed by a cheerful love feast, at which the object of our cov- 
enant was explained and two negroes were received into the 
congregation. It was a day of blessing for the negroes, many 
of Avhom seemed to be deeply affected. Having now a place of 
worship of their own, the meetings could be better adapted to 
their circumstances. Several sisters offered themselves to keep 
a Sunday school for their benefit, and it was diligently fre- 
quented not only by children, but also by adults. This hope- 
ful project was soon, however, painfully interrupted by a law 
which passed the Legislature of North Carolina forbidding any 
school instruction to be imparted to the negroes — a prohibition 
which likewise operated very injuriously on their attendance at 
the meetings. On May 22, 1833, the negroes were called to 
mourn over the loss of their faithful and much-loved pastor, 
Brother Abraham Steiner. His place was supplied by Brother 
John Renatus Schmidt. For the last year or two they have 
manifested a greater desire for the word of life, and visited 
the house of God more diligently, and our testimony to the 
sufferings and death of Jesus appears to find more entrance 
into their hearts. In the private meetings of the little negro 
flock, and particularly at the holy communion, the peace of 
God is powerfully perceptible. The company of emancipated 
negroes, upward of twenty in number, who sailed last year for 
Liberia, on the western coast of Africa, had all been diligent 
attendants on our meetings and former Sunday school, and one 
of them was a communicant member of our flock. At parting 
they declared with tears that nothing grieved them so much as 
the loss of these privileges. They promised to devote them- 
selves to the Lord Jesus, and to remain faithful to him. 

" In the fourteen j^ears which have elapsed since their church 
was dedicated, 10 adults and 73 children have been baptized and 
8 received into the congregation. The little flock consists at 
present (1837) o^ ^7 adult members, 10 of whom are communi- 
cants. 

" On the settling of the Brethren in Wachovia, N. C, it was 
their inost cherished object to communicate the gospel both to 



72 The GoSj^el among the Slaves. 

the Indians ©n the borders of the Southern States and to the 
negro population of those states, amounting to several thou- 
sands, especially to such a,s resided in the neighborhood of our 
congregations, hoping that they might be favored to gather 
from among them a reward for the travail of the Redeemer's 
soul. Special meetings were accordingly commenced at Hope 
and Bethany and elsewhere in the neighborhood of Salem, and 
the negroes, who were numerous in these districts, were in gen- 
eral diligent in attending them. The various ministers sta- 
tioned at Salem, the late brethren, Fritz, Kramsch, Wohfahrt, 
Abraham Steiner, and their wives, interested themselves with 
particular affection for the spiritual welfare of the negroes in 
their vicinity, and the Lord so blessed their labors to the hearts 
of many that they could be admitted to a participation of the 
Lord's Supper. A thankful remembrance of their faithful serv- 
ices is still retained by the negroes. 

" In the prosecution of the Mission amongst the Cherokees, 
and in the attempt to establish one amongst the Creek Indians, 
the negroes dispersed among them were not forgotten. Our 
brethren at Springplace had the gratification of baptizing the 
firstling of these negroes July 29, 1827. He was a native Afri- 
can of the Tjamba tribe, and was baptized into the death of 
Jesus by the name of Christian Jacob, continuing faithful to his 
Christian profession till his happy end." 

The Rev. John Mines, pastor of a Church at Leesburg, Va., 
published at Richmond in 1822, "The Evangelical Catechism, 
or a plain and easy system of the principle docti-ines and duties 
of the Christian religion. Adapted to the use of Sabbath schools 
and families, with a new method of instructing those who can- 
not read." 

His " new method " was what is called " oral instruction," 
the scholars repeating the answers after the teacher until com- 
mitted to memory. Mr. Mines was much interested in the re- 
ligious instruction of the negroes. In the preface of his cate- 
chism he states that he had several classes of them (taught by 
his friends). He commends the use of it to masters and mis- 
tresses as " a humble attempt " to furnish them with appropri- 
ate means for the instruction of their servants in religious 
knowledge; and he commends it also to his "colored friends 
in the United States " as a book written " especially for them," 



A Brief Historical Sketch. 73 

and says: "With the help of God I will attend particularly to 
your spiritual interest while I live." 

1823. Bishop Dehon, of the Diocese of South Carolina, had 
all his good feelings excited in behalf of the negroes. " In his 
own congregation he was the laborious and patient minister of 
the African, and he encouraged among the masters and mis- 
tresses in his flock that best kindness toward their servants — a 
concern for their eternal salvation." " He endeavored to en- 
lighten the community on this subject." " He would gladly 
embrace opportunities to converse with men of influence relat- 
ing to it," etc. (" Life," by Dr. Gadsden.) 

The Rev. Dr. Dalcho, of the Episcopal Church, Charleston, 
this year issued a va-uable pamphlet entitled: "Practical Con- 
siderations, Founded on the Scriptures, Relative to the Slave 
Population of South Carolina." Its design is given in the first 
paragraph, namely: " To show from the scriptures of the Old 
and New Testament, that slavery is not forbidden by the divine 
law; and at the same time to prove the necessity of giving re- 
ligious instruction to our negroes." Dr. Dalcho mentions that 
in 1822 there were 316 colored communicants in the Episcopal 
Churches in Chai-leston and 200 children in their colored Sun- 
day schools. 

A few months before this pamphlet appeared. Dr. Richai-d 
Furman, President of the Baptist State Convention of South 
Carolina, in the name of that convention addressed a letter to 
his Excellency, Governor Wilson, giving an " Exposition of the 
views of the Baptists relative to the colored population of the 
United States," in which, among other observations, we find 
the following: "Their religious interests claim a regard from 
their masters of the most serious nature, and it is indispensa- 
ble." 

The lamented Dr. John Holt Rice, already mentioned in this 
sketch, presented the subject of the religious instruction of the 
negroes in a strong light to the consideration of his fellow-citi- 
zens of Virginia in the Evmigelical Magazine^ Vol. VIII., pp. 613, 
614. He printed a sermon on the duty of masters to educate 
and baptize the children of their servants. Through his influ- 
ence many in Virginia were induced to give the duty of the re- 
ligious instruction of the negroes serious consideration, which 
resulted in action. One of his objects in devoting himself to 



V" 



74 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

the establishment of the Prince Edward Theological Seminary 
was that a ministry might be educated at home and fitted for 
the field composed as it is of masters and servants, bond and 
free. This was also one prominent object in the minds of many 
ministers, elders, and laymen in the foundation and endowment 
of the Theological Seminary of the Synod of South Carolina 
and Georgia in Columbia, S. C. 

1828. The number of colored members in the Methodist 
Episcopal Church was 48,096, and for 1825, 49,537; 1826, 51,334; 
1827, 53,565; 1828, 58,856; showing a steady increase. In 1828 
" a plain and easy catechism, designed chiefly for the benefit of 
the colored persons, with suitable prayers and hymns annexed," 
was published by Rev. B. M. Palmer, D.D., pastor of the Cir- 
cular Church, Charleston, S. C." Six or eight years before this 
he had published a smaller work of the same kind and bearing 
nearly the same title. During all his ministry in Charleston, 
he was a firm supporter of the religious instruction of the ne- 
groes, both in word and deed. 

1829. The Hon. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, of the Epis- 
copal Church, delivered an address before the Agricultural So- 
ciety of South Carolina, in which he ably and lai-gely insisted 
upon the religious instruction of the negroes. This address 
went through two or more editions and was extensively circu- 
lated and with the happiest effects. 

1830. The historian of the Methodist Episcopal Church re- 
marks: "This year several Missions were commenced for the 
special benefit of the slave population in the States of South Car- 
olina and Georgia. This class of people had been favored with 
the labors of the Methodi'^t ministry from the beginning of its 
labors in this country, and there were at this time 68,814 °^ ^he 
colored population in the several states and territories in our 
Church fellowship, most of whom were slaves. It was found 
however on a closer inspection into their condition that there 
Avere many that could not be reached hy the ordinary means, 
and therefore preachers were selected who might devote them- 
selves exclusively to their service." 

He alludes particularly to the " Missionary Society of the 
South Carolina Conference, Auxiliary to the Missionary Socie- 
tv of the Methodist Episcopal Church," which, at least so far as 
its efforts respect the negro population, the Rev. Williams Ca- 



A Brief Historical Sketch. 75 

pers, D.D., superintendent of these Missions to the negroes 
from their commencement, has spared no exertions to extend 
and render successful. The reports of the Board of Managers, 
drawn up from year to jear bj himself, exhibit the purity and 
fervor of his zeal in so good a cause, as well as the remarkable 
progress which it has made. 

In the winter of 1830 and the spring of 1S31, two Associa- 
tions of planters were formed in Georgia for the special object 
of affording religious instruction to the negroes bj their own 
efforts and bj missionaries employed for the purpose. The first 
was formed by the Rev. Joseph Clay Stiles in Mcintosh Coun- 
ty, embracing the neighborhood of Harris's Neck, which con- 
tinued in operation for some time, until by the withdrawment 
of Mr. Stiles's labors from the neighborhood and the loss of 
some of the inhabitants by death and removals, it ceased. The 
second was formed in Liberty County by the Midway Congre- 
gational Church and the Baptist Church under their respective 
pastors, the Rev. Robert Quarterman and the Rev. Samuel 
Spry Law, which Association, with one suspension from the 
absence of a missionary, has continued its operations to the 
present time. 

One or more associations for the same purpose were formed 
in St. Luke's Parish, S. C, in which John David Mungin, Esq., 
took an active part. 

1831. An address entitled "The Religious Instruction of the 
Negroes," delivered before the Associations of Mcintosh and 
Liberty Counties, was published and circulated in newspaper 
and pamphlet form. 

1832. Edward R. Laurens, Esq., delivered an address before 
the Agricultural Association of South Carolina, in which this 
duty in the form of oral instruction, under proper arrangements 
is recognized. [Southern Agriculturist ^ 1832.) "A short cate- 
chism for the use of the colored members on trial of the M. E. 
Church in South Carolina: by W. Capers, D.D., Charleston, 
1832." 

This short catechism was prepared by Dr. Capers for the 
use of the Methodist Missions to the negroes of the South Car- 
olina Conferences, and it is used by all the missionaries. 

1833. The Missionai-y Society of the South Carolina Con- 
ference, which had now fairly entered upon its work, reported 



>j6 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

that the Missions were generally in flourishing circumstances; 
that there were 1,395 colored members, and 490 children under 
catechetical instruction at the Mission stations. The Society 
also recommended the establishment of four or five new sta- 
tions and the appointment of three or four new missionaries 
for stations already occupied. (Report, pp. 12-15.) 

The " First Annual Report of the Liberty County Associa- 
tion was published and circulated in two editions. 

Two essays were read before the Presbytery of Georgia, in 
April, 1833: one on " The Moral and Religious Condition of Our 
Colored Population," and the other "A Detail of a Plan for the 
Moral Improvement of Negroes on Plantations," by Thomas 
Savage Clay, Esq., of Bi-yan County. Thej' were both pub- 
lished by order of the Presbytery. The " Detail," etc., by Mi*. 
Clay, which was indeed the result of his own experience and 
observation on his own plantation for many years, was exten- 
sively circulated and received with appi-obation, and has done, 
and is still doing, much good. 

In December of this year the " Report of the Committee to 
whom was referred the subject of the religious instruction of 
the negroes," of the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia was 
published. To this report a series of resolutions were subjoined : 

" I. That to impart the gospel to the negroes of our country 
is a duty which God in his providence and in his word imposes 
on us. 

" 2. That in the discharge of this duty we separate entirely 
the civil and religious condition of the people; and while we 
devote ourselves to the improvement of the latter, we disclaim 
all intei-ference with the former. 

" 3. That the plan which we shall pursue for their religious 
instruction shall be that permitted by the laws of the state, con- 
stituting the bond of this Synod. 

" 4. That we deem religious instruction to master and serv- 
ant evei'y way conducive to our interests for this world and for 
that which is to come. 

"5. That every member of this Synod, while he endeavors 
to awaken others , shall set the example and begin the religious 
instruction of the servants of his own household, systematically 
and perseveringly, as God shall enable him. 

" 6. That we cannot longer continue to neglect this duty 



A Brief Historical Sketch. 77 

without incurring the charge of inconsistency in our Christian 
character; of unfaithfulness in the discharge of our ministerial 
duty; and at the same time meeting the disapprobation of God 
and our consciences." 

The narrative of religion of the Synod at the same session 
holds the following language: "The Synod continues to feel 
the same responsibilities and desires on this subject which they 
have repeatedly expressed. They rejoice to find that increas- 
ing attention is paid to it on the part of many who are largely 
interested as owners in this class of our population." (Min- 
utes, pp. 24-34.) 

The project of forming a Domestic Missionary Society, un 
der the cafe of the Synod, with special reference to the reli- 
gious instruction of the negroes, was somewhat discussed, chief- 
ly in private, and a committee was appointed by the Synod to 
bring in a report at the next meeting. 

The reports from the Episcopal Churches in South Carolina 
to the convention evidenced much attention to the negroes. The 
Rev. Joseph R. Walker, of Beaufort, reported 57 communicants 
and 234 members of the Sunday school, which was conducted 
by the first and best society in the place. 

Bishop Ives, of North Carolina, addressed the convention 
" on the interesting subject of providing for our slave popula- 
tion a more adequate knowledge of the doctrines of Christ cru- 
cified." He stated in a letter to Bishop Meade that active erf- 
forts, in behalf of this people, were made in five or six of the 
Churches, and singled out the Church of St. John's, Fayette- 
ville, embracing between three and four hundred worshipers, of 
whom forty were communicants. 

There were several religious newspapers, conducted bj' dif- 
ferent denominations, that advocated openly and efficiently 
about this time the religious instruction of the negroes: the 
Gospel Messenger^ Episcopal, Charleston; the Charleston Observ- 
er, Presbyterian; the Christian Index, Baptist; the Southern 
Christian Advocate, Methodist; the Western Limiinary, Ken- 
tucky ; and there may be added the New Orleans Observer and 
the Southern Churchman, Alexandria, besides others. Through 
these papers, having an extensive circulation, the subject was 
presented to the minds of thousands of our citizens. 

There was published this year (1S33) "A Plain and Easy Cat- 



78 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

echism, designed for the benefit of colored children, with sev- 
eral verses and hymns, with an appendix ; compiled by a mis- 
sionary: Savannah." This missionary was a Methodist, the 
Rev. Samuel J. Bryan, who labored among the negroes on the 
Savannah River. 

" The encouraging success which had attended the labors of 
our preachei-s among the slaves and free black population of 
the South stimulated our brethren in the Southwest to imitate 
their example by opening Missions for the special benefit of 
this class of people. Hence at the last session of the Tennessee 
Conference the African Mission, embracing the colored popu- 
lation of Nashville and its vicinity, was commenced. A regular 
four weeks' circuit was formed, and the good work was prose- 
cuted with such success that in 1834 there were reported 819 
Church members." (Bangs 4, p. 143.) 

1834. A meeting was held in Petersburg, Va., in March, 
1834, composed of representatives from the Synods of North 
Carolina and Virginia. After disposing of the special business 
for which the meeting was called, the subject of the religious 
instruction of the negroes was discussed, and as a result a com- 
mittee was appointed, consisting of three ministers and elders 
in each of the states, " to bring before the Presbyteries the sub- 
ject of ministers giving more religious instruction to the col- 
ored people, and to collect and publish information on the best 
modes of giving oral instruction to this class of our population " 
That committee, of which Rev. William S. Plumer, D.D., now of 
Richmond, was the Chairman, performed its duty and presented 
a report to the Synods of North Carolina and Virginia at their fall 
sessions in 1834. The same report, w'ith some accompanying 
documents, was forwarded to the Synod of South Carolina and 
Georgia, and read before that body in December, 1834. 

The committee of the Synods of North Carolina and Vir- 
ginia reported a plan "for forming a society by the concurrence 
of two or more Synods for the purpose of affording religious in- 
struction to the negroes in a manner consistent with the laws 
of the States and with the feelings and wishes of planters." The 
plan was laid before Synod of North Carolina and acceded to. 
It was laid over by the Synods of Virginia, South Carolina, and 
Georgia to their session in 1835, and then, for special reasons, 
indefinitelv postponed. A report was presented by a committee 



A Brief Historical Sketch. 79 

of the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia, on this plan. The 
report was adverse to it, on account of the extent of the pro- 
posed organization, the excitement of the times, and the belief 
that each Synod could of itself conduct the work more success- 
fully than when united with the other two. The Constitution 
•of the proposed society, the reasons in favor of it, and Dr. Plum- 
er's report, were all laid before the public in the columns of 
the Charleston Observer. The report has been several times re- 
ferred to in this sketch. 

The Synod of South. Carolina and Georgia in December, 
1834, passed the following resolutions: 

'• I. That it be enjoined upon all the Churches in the Presby- 
teries comprising this Synod to take order at their earliest meet- 
ing to obtain full and correct statistical information of the num- 
ber of colored persons in actual attendance at our several places 
of worship, and the number of colored members in our several 
Churches, and make a full report to the Synod at its next meet- 
ing ; and for this purpose that the stated clerk of this Synod fur- 
nish a cop v of this resolution to the stated clerk of each presbytery. 

" 2. That it be enjoined on all Presbyteries in presenting 
their annual report to the Synod to report the state of religion 
in the colored part of the congregations, and also to present a 
statistical report of the increase of colored members, and that 
this be the standing rule of the Synod on this subject." The 
narrative states that "increasing efforts had been made to im- 
part religious insti-uction to the negroes." (Minutes, pp. 22-29.) 

The Synod of Mississippi and Alabama, in their narrative 
November i, 1831, says: "Another very encouraging circum- 
stance in the situation of our Church is the deep interest which 
is felt in behalf of our colored population, and the efforts which 
are made to impart to them religious instruction. All our min- 
isters feel a deep interest in the instruction of this part of our 
population, and when prudently conducted we meet with no 
opposition. A few of us, owing to peculiar circumstances, have 
no opportunity of preaching to them separately and at stated 
times; but embrace every favorable opportunity that occurs. 
Others devote a portion of every Sabbath, others a half of ev- 
ery Sabbath, and two of our number preach exclusively to 
them. During the past year the condition and wants of the 
colored popvilation have occupied more of our attention than at 



8o The Gospel among the Slaves. 

any previous period, and in future we hope to be more untiring 
in all our efforts to promote their happiness in this life and in 
that which is to come." In their resolutions this Synod en- 
joined all under their care directly to make "united efforts to 
provide means for the employment of missionaries to give oral 
instruction to the colored population on the plantations with 
the permission of those persons to whom they belong." 

In this same year (1834) ' ' the Kentucky Union, for the 
moral and religious improvement of the colored race " was 
formed, and a " circular " addressed to the ministers of the gos- 
pel in Kentucky, by the Executive Committee of that Union, 
to which the Constitution was appended. It was " a union of the 
several denominations of Christians in the state." The Rev. 
H. H. Kavanaugh was President; there were ten Vice Presi- 
dents, selected from different qviarters of the State, and an Ex- 
ecutive Committee of seven members, located in Danville, of 
which Rev. John C. Young was Chairman. President Young 
told me at the General Assembly of 1839 that this Union had 
not accomplished much. 

The "second annual report" of the Liberty County Associa- 
tion was published, giving some good account of their opera- 
tions. "An Essay on the Management of Slaves, and especial- 
ly on their religious instruction," read before the Agricultural 
Society of St. John's, Colleton, S. C, by Whitemarsh B. Sea- 
brook, President, was published by the Society. Mr. Seabrook 
reviews some former publications on the religious instruction 
of the negroes, and suggests his own plans and views on the 
subject. The Right Rev. William Meade, Assistant Bishop of 
Virginia, published an admirable " pastoral letter to the minis- 
ters, members, and friends of the Protestant Episcopal Church 
in the diocese of Virginia, on the duty of affording religious in- 
struction to those in bondage." The bishop, in his zeal and per- 
sonal efforts on this subject, demonstrates the sincerity of his 
published opinions. 

The Missionary Society of the South Carolina Conference 
reported five missionaries to the blacks; one in North Carolina, 
the rest in South Carolina, and 2,145 members and 1,503 chil- 
dren under catechetical instruction. 

" The Colored Man's Help ; or the Planter's Catechism : Rich- 
mond, Va." was now published. 



A Brief Historical Sketch. 8i 

Also, in the Charleston Observer, " Biographies of Servants 
Mentioned in the Scriptures; with Questi;ons and Answers," 

These admirable sketches were prepared bj Mrs. Horace S. 
Pratt, then of St. Mary's, Ga., and now of Tuscaloosa, Ala. The 
Rev. Horace S. Pratt, previously to his appointment to a pro- 
fessorship in the Alabama College at Tuscaloosa, and while pas- 
tor of the St. Mary's Presbyterian Church, gave much of his 
attention to the religious instruction of the negroes and pre- 
pared at his own expense a comfortable and commodious house 
of worship for them, and which they occupy at the present 
time. 

Also, "A Catechism for Colored Persons: by C. C.Jones," 
printed in Charleston. 

1835. "The Third Annual Report of the Liberty County 
Association " was printed and more extensively circulated than 
the two preceding. 

In the narrative of the state of religion in the Synod of 
South Carolina and Georgia, it is said : " Even the religious in- 
struction of our slave population, entirely suspended in some 
parts of the country, through the lamentable interference of 
abolition fanatics, has proceeded with almost unabated diligence 
and steadiness of purpose through the length and breadth of our 
Synod." (Minutes, 1835, p. 62.) 

Bishop Bowen, of the diocese of South Carolina, prepared at 
the request of the Convention and printed "A Pastoral Letter 
on the Religion of the Slaves of the Members of the Protestant 
Episcopal Church in the State of South Carolina," to which he 
appended " Scripture Lessons," for the same. 

The subject had been presented to the Convention by an able 
report from a committee, and a portion of the report was em- 
bodied in Bishop Bowen's letter. 

The Missionary Society of the South Carolina Conference 
reported this year 2,603 members and 1,330 children under cat- 
echetical instruction. 

1836, The Rev. George W. Freeman, late rector of Christ's 
Church, Raleigh, N. C, published two discourses on " The 
Rights and Duties of Slaveholders." Mr. Freeman with pathos 
and energy urges upon masters and mistresses the duty of re- 
ligious instruction. 

The report of the Liberty County Association was prepared, 
6 



82 The Gosfel among the Slaves. 

but not published this jear. The operations of the Association 
during the year had been successful. 

The bishops of the M. E. Church in the United States, in 
their letter of reply to the letter from the Wesleyan Methodist 
Conference, England, held the following language: "It may 
be pertinent to remark that of the colored population in the 
Southern and Southwestern States there are not less than 
70,000 in our Church membership ; and in addition to those 
who are mingled with our white congregations, we have sev- 
eral prosperous Missions, exclusively for their spiritual benefit, 
which have been and are still owned of God to the conversion 
of many precious souls. On the plantations of the South and 
Southwest ovir devoted missionaries are laboring for the salva- 
tion of the slaves, catechising their children and bringing all 
within their influence, as far as possible, to the saving knowl- 
edge of Jesus Christ. And we need hardly add that we shall 
most gladly avail ourselves, as we have ever done, of all the 
means in our power to promote their best interests." The total 
number of colored members reported for 1836 was 82,661. 

1837-38. The subject of the religious instruction of the ne- 
groes was called up and attended to in the Synod of South Car- 
olina and Georgia both these years, and many Sunday schools 
for childi-en and adults reported from the different Presbyteries. 
It also received attention in all the Southern Synods. There 
appeared to be a growing conviction of the duty itself, and on 
the whole an increase of efforts. 

The instruction of the negroes in Liberty County by the As- 
sociation was carried forward as usual during the summers of 
these years, but in consequence of the absence of the mission- 
ary in the winters no reports were published. 

The Missionary Society of the South Carolina Conference 
prosecuted its work with encouraging success. In an annual 
meeting in the town of Columbia, S. C, they collected for their 
Missions to the negroes between $1,200 and $1,500. 

Bishop Meade collected and published " Sermons Dialogued, 
and Narratives for Servants, to be read to them in families: 
Richmond, 1836." 

The second edition of the " Catechism for Colored Persons ; 
by C. C. Jones: Savannah. T. Purse, 1837." Also, "A Cate- 
chism to be used by the teachers in the religious instruction of 



A B^-ief Historical Sketch. 83 

persons of color, etc., prepared in conformity to a resolution of 
the Convention, under tiie direction of the bishop: Charleston." 
The reverend gentlemen of the diocese of South Carolina, who 
united in preparing this catechism, were Dr. Gadsden (now 
bishop), Mr. T. Trapier, and Mr. William H. Barnwell. 

The following resolution was passed in the Episcopal Con- 
vention of South Carolina in 1838: ^^Resolved, That it be re- 
spectfully recommended to the members of our Church, who 
are proprietors of slaves individually and collectively, to take 
measures for the support of clerical missionaries and lay cate- 
chists, who are members of our Church, for the religious in- 
struction of their slaves." 

And again : '■'■Resolved, That it be urged upon the rectors and 
vestries of the country parishes to exert themselves to obtain 
the services of such missionaries and lay catechists." 

1839-40. Fi-om the reports of the Liberty County Associa- 
tion for these years, it appears that a revival of religion com- 
menced toward the close of the summer of 183S among the ne- 
groes, and extended very nearly over the whole country, and 
continued for two years. The whole number received into the 
Congregational and Baptist Churches, on profession of their 
faith, was fully two hundred and fifty. The number of adults 
and children under catechetical instruction in the Sabbath 
schools connected with the Association and the different 
Churches ranged from five to seven hundred. The Mission- 
ary Society of the South Carolina Conference reported in 1839 
13 Missions, 210 plantations, 19 missionaries, 5,482 Church 
members, and 3,769 children catechised; in 1840, 13 Missions, 
232 plantations, 19 missionaries, 5,482 Church members, and 
3,811 children. (Minutes.) 

The Methodists returned in 1840 94,532 colored persons in 
their Conference. 

The Rev. T. Archibald (Presbyterian) labored as a mission- 
ary to the negroes in Mississippi for several years, and in 1839, 
after leaving his charge in consequence of the abolition excite- 
ment, he received a call to preach to the negroes in Marengo 
County, Ala. 

The Rev. James Smylie and Rev. William C. Blair (of the 
same denomination) were and still are (if our late information 
be coi-rect) " engaged in this good work systematically and con- 



84 The Gospel among the Slaves, 

stantly " in Mississippi. The Rev. James Smjlie is character- 
ized as "an aged and indefatigable father; his success in en- 
lightening the negroes has been very great. A large propor- 
tion of the negroes in his old Church can recite both Willison's 
and the Westminster Catechism very accurately." 

The names of many other pastors in the South might be 
given, who have conscientiously and for a series of years de- 
voted much time to the religious instruction of the negroes con- 
nected with their Churches. 

The Rev. James Smylie and Rev. John L. Montgomery were 
appointed by the Synod of Mississippi in 1839 to write or com- 
pile a catechism for the instruction of the negroes. The man- 
uscript was presented to the Synod in October, 1840, and put 
into the hands of a committee of revision, but it has not yet 
been published. 

The table on the state of the Churches of the Sunbury Bap- 
tist Association, Georgia, gives six African Churches with a 
total of 3,987 members, as returned. One of these Churches 
did not return the number of communicants. Of the other 
Churches in the table, five have an overwhelming majority of 
colored members. The three African Churches in Savannah 
are all connected with this Association. In the Appendix to 
the Minutes it is said: "The committee to whom was referred 
Brother Sweat's letter on the subject of a Mission among the 
African Church reports that it is highly important that such a 
Mission should be established, and recommend that the subject 
be turned over to the Executive Committee wath the instruction 
that the brethren engaged in that work during the past year be 
compensated for their services. Your committee further rec- 
ommend that Brother Connor be employed as a missionary by 
the Association, provided he will devote half his time to the 
colored people." 

And again : " That the table showing the state of the Churches 
may be more correct than the present, it is requested that at 
the next meeting of the Association the Church clerks will dis- 
tinguish in their reports between the white and colored mem- 
bers, and that such Churches as send no delegates will forward 
a statement of their condition." 

"Missions to the people of color" is noticed in the annual 
report of the Missionary Society of the M. E. Church in 1840. 



A Brief Historical Sketch. 85 

The report thus speaks: "And surelj those who devote them- 
selves to the self-sacrificing work of preaching the gospel to 
these people on the rice and sugar plantations of the South and 
Southwest are no less deserving the patronage of the Mission- 
ary Society than those who labor for the same benevolent ob- 
ject in other portions of the great work. Of these there are 
chiefly in the Southern Conferences 12,402 members under the 
patronage of this Society." (Report, p. 23.) 

1841. The report of the same Society for this year refers 
also to " Missions to the colored population." In no portion of 
our work are our missionaries called to endure greater priva- 
tions or make greater sacrifices of health and life than in these 
Missions among the slaves, many of which are located in sec- 
tions of the southern country which is proverbially sickly, and 
under the fatal influence of a climate which few white men are 
capable of enduring even for a single year. And yet, notwith- 
standing so many valuable missionai-ies have fallen mai-tyrs to 
their toils in these Missions, year after year there are found 
others to take their places, who fall likewise in their work, 
" ceasing at once to work and live." Nor have our Superin- 
tendents any difficulty in finding missionaries ready to fill up 
the ranks which death has thinned in these sections of the 
work ; for the love of Christ and the love of the souls of these 
poor Africans in bonds constrain our brethren in the itinerant 
work of the Southern Conferences to exclaim : " Here we are, 
send us." The Lord be praised for the zeal and success of our 
brethren in this self-denying and self-sacrificing work. 

The Missionary Society of the South Carolina Conference 
reported this year of Missions exclusively to the negroes, 14; 
plantations served, 301; members, 6,145; children under cate- 
chetical instruction, 3,407; and missionaries, 18. The report 
gives an animated and cheering view of the prospects of these 
Missions. The great object of the Society in them is thus ex- 
pressed : " So to preach this gospel that it may be believed, and 
being believed may prove ' the power of God unto salvation ' is 
the great object, and we repeat it, the sole object of our minis- 
trations among the blacks. This object attained, we find the 
terminus of our anxieties and toils, of our preaching and 
prayers." (Report, pp. 12-17.) 

The total of colored communicants in the Methodist connec- 



86 The Gosfel among the Slaves. 

tion is given in the Minutes of tiie Annual Conferences for the 
years 1840 and 1841. For 1840, 94,532, and for 1841, 102,158. 
The South Carolina Conference is ahead of all, having 30,481 ; 
next comes the Baltimore Conference, 13,904; then the Geor- 
gia Conference, 9,989; Philadelphia, 8,778; Kentucky, 6,321, and 
so on. (Minutes, p. 156.) 

The Sunburj Association reported this year seven African 
Churches, with 4,430 members (from one no returns); adding 
to this number the returns from the mixed Churches of white 
and black, and an estimate of some from which no returns were 
made, a total of 5,664 colored members is obtained. Appendix 
B: '■^Resolved, That the committee be authorized to offer a sum 
not exceeding $50 per month for one or more ordained minis- 
ters to labor among the colored people and destitute Churches 
within the bounds of this Association." 

Bishop Meade, of Virginia, made a report to the Convention 
of his diocese "on the best means of promoting the religious 
instruction of servants," the result of his extended observation 
and long experience in this department of labor. 

Bishop Gadsden, of South Carolina, devotes a considerable 
portion of his address to the Convention to the subject of the 
religious instruction of the negroes. He thus speaks: " Of that 
class peculiar to our social system, the colored people, many 
are members of our Church, as are the masters of a very large 
number of them who as yet are not converted to the gospel. 
To make these fellow-creatures, who share with us the precious 
redemption which is by Jesus Christ, good Christians is a pur- 
pose of which this Church is not and never has been regardless. 
The interest and efforts in this cause have increased. But the 
feeling ought to be much deeper, and the efforts more extended. 
Consider the large number who are yet almost, if not entirely, 
without the restraint, the incentives, the consolations, and the 
hopes of the gospel, under the bondage of Satan, and on the 
precipice of the second death. I speak more particularly of 
those the smoke of Avhose cabins is in sight of our ministers who 
live on the same plantations with members of our Church. Can 
nothing be done, ought not everything be done that can be, to 
bring such persons to the knowledge and obedience of Christ.^ " 

There are thirty-one parochial reports. In twenty-two of 
the thirty-one Churches there are colored members, amounting 



A Brief Historical Sketch, 87 

to 869. In fifteen there are Sabbath schools for colored chil- 
dren, amounting to 1,459 scholars. Eight of the clergj preach 
on the plantations as well as to their colored congregations, and 
there are two Missions to the negroes, embracing 1,400 in the 
congregations. Children catechised on the plantations. 

The practice of the Episcopal Church in this diocese cannot 
be too highly commended to those who are of similar faith in 
the matter referred to, which is the baptism of the infants and 
children of negroes who are members of the Chuixh. When 
God established his visible Church on earth, he constituted the 
infant seed of believers members of it, and therefore command- 
ed that the sign and seal of his gracious covenant should be ap- 
plied to them. His Church has ever remained the same, the 
members the same, and under the same Constitution. Our 
practice ought to confirm to our faith, and to the plain teach- \J 
ings of the word of God. A recurrence to this subject will be 
necessary when the means and plans for the religious instruc- 
tion of the negroes come under consideration in the fourth part 
of this work, and I therefore disiniss it in this place. There — 
were 159 colored children baptized in the Churches of the dio- 
cese by the parochial reports. (Journal of the Fifty-second 
Convention, pp. 10-13 and pp. 33-48.) 

From the seventh annual report of the Liberty County As- 
sociation for the religious instruction of the negroes, it appears 
that the efforts of the Association during the year had been suc- 
cessful. There were 450 children and youth under catechetical 
instruction, and adding four schools not immediately under the 
care of the Association, but conducted by members of it, there 
were 265 more. Seven Sabbath schools in all were returned, and 
three stations for preaching. Congregations during the year 
full and attentive; general order of the people commendable. 

Appended to this report is the address to the Association by 
the President, the Rev. Josiah Spry Law; an address which le- 
ceived the cordial and unanimous approbation of the Associa- 
tion as one which placed the religious instruction of the negroes 
in a clear light, as the great duty of their owners, as well as of 
the Churches. It was believed by the Association that the ad- 
dress was calculated to exert a favorable influence wherever it 
should be circulated in our country, and it Avas therefore, with 
the consent of the author, ordered to be printed. 



CHAPTER VII. 
The Period of Decline: The Cause. 

LIVING in the midst of these missionary move- 
ments, and heartily in sympathy with them. 
Dr. Jones becomes an important witness in regard 
to the period of decline which followed the aboli- 
tion propaganda of New England. He gives a 
statement of the tendency among the negroes to 
throw off all dependence upon the whites, taking 
the control of their own Church affairs in the so- 
called "Free States." Concurrently with this se- 
cession in the North, the agitation of the slavery 
question in New England alarmed the slaveholders 
of the South. The consequence was inevitable. 
The religious interests of the slaves suffered seri- 
ous damage by the incendiary utterances of the 
Garrisons and other leaders of the abolition move- 
ment. Our author states the case in conservative 
language : 

Of late years the negroes in the free states have manifested 
a strong inclination to be independent of the influence and con- 
trol of the whites, and to create and manage their ecclesiastical 
establishments in their own way ; a very natural inclination, and 
not to be wondered at nor objected against, provided they are 
capable of taking care of themselves, which, however, many of 
their warmest friends not only seriously doubt, but wholly deny. 
As a specimen of this disposition I would refer to the secession 
of Richard Allen and his associates in Philadelphia, from the 
Methodist Church, which secession extended into New York 
(88) 



The Period of Decline: The Cause. 89 

and other states. Of this secession in New York, Dr. Bangs 
thus writes: "It is now (1839) twenty years since this secession 
took place, and the degree of their prosperity may be estimated 
from the following statement of their number of circuits and 
stations, preachers and members taken from their Minutes for 
1839: Circuits, 21; preachers, 32; members, 2,608. These cir- 
cuits and stations are found in the states of New York, New 
Jersej', Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. In the 
city of New York, where the secession originated, they have a 
membership of 1,325, making an increase of 396 in twenty years, 
which is by no means in a ratio with their increase while they 
remained under the care of their white brethren. In the city 
of Boston, however, their success had been greater in propor- 
tion. In 1819 they had only 33, but now, in 1839, they have 126. 
As the M. E. Church never derived any temporal emolument 
from them, so we have sustained no other damage by the se- 
cession than what may arise from missing the opportunity of 
doing them all the good in our power as their pastors," etc. 

In the slave states there has been action in ecclesiastical 
bodies on the religious instruction of the negroes, and the value 
of such action is that it discovers a good disposition on the part 
of ministers and Churches to fulfill their duty to this people. 

The Episcopal Church has rather taken the lead in making 
efforts and in keeping up an interest in its own bosom. Bishop 
Meade, of Virginia, a long and unwearied advocate of this cause. 
Bishop Ives, of North Carolina, Bishop Bowen, of South Carolina 
(before his decease), and the present bishop of that state. Dr. 
Gadsden, have each addressed their dioceses on this subject, and 
commended it to the clergy and laity. The subject has been 
discussed in their Conventions, accompanied with some able re- 
ports. Many of the clergy devote time to the instruction of 
the negroes attached to their congregations, and have regular 
and flourishing Sabbath schools. It is a stated fact that in the 
Episcopal Churches generally in South Carolina there are Sab- 
bath schools for the negroes, and some of them large and flour- 
ishing. 

There are several Episcopal missionaries to this people in 
the state. The Churches in Charleston have always been act- 
ive in the instruction of the negroes, and the present bishop, 
Dr. Gadsden, has been long known as an advocate of the work. 



90 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

The lately elected Bishop of Georgia, Rev. Stephen Elliott, D.D., 
has brought the subject before his Convention in his " primary 
address " (1841), and urged attention to it with an energy and a 
zeal which promises great blessings to the negroes connected 
with the Churches of his new and interesting diocese. The ne- 
groes connected with the Episcopal Church have genei'ally 
been noted for intelligence and fidelity. 

The Methodists do not yield in interest and efforts to any 
denomination. From the commencement of their Church in 
the United States they have paid attention to the neg"roes, of 
which we have had ample proof in the progress of this sketch. 
In the slave states they have, next to the Baptists, the largest 
number of communicants. The negroes were brought under 
the same Church regulations as the whites, having class leaders 
and class meetings and exhorters, as the Church Discipline re- 
quires. The number of negro communicants is reported at 
their Conferences as well as labors in their behalf, and where 
it is necessarj'- traveling preachers are directed to pay attention 
to them. In the South Carolina Conference the Missionary 
Society, already referred to, has a field of operations among the 
negroes along the seaboard, from North Carolina to the south- 
ern counties of Georgia. The missionaries of this society labor 
chiefly on river bottoms, and in districts where the negro popu- 
lation is large and the white population small, and it is under- 
stood receive most of their support from the planters them- 
selves, whose plantations they serve. We know of no other 
Missionary Society in this denomination so fully devoted to 
this particular field, but there are Methodist missionaries for 
the negroes in Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, and other slave- 
holding states. Without a doubt, as the Lord has opened wide 
the door of usefulness to this denomination among the negi^oes, 
it will not fail to exert itself to the utmost. Bishop J. O. An- 
drew, whose circuit is in the Southern States, has taken up the 
subject in good earnest and is prosecuting it with energy and 
success. 

The Baptists have no societies in existence expressly for 
evangelizing the negroes, although their Associations and Con- 
ventions do, from time to time, call up the subject and act upon 
it. There are more negro communicants and more Churches 
regularly constituted, exclusively of negroes, with their own 



The Period of Decline: The Cause. 91 

regular houses of public worship, and with ordained negro 
preachers, attached to this denomination than to any other 
denomination in the United States. 

It is difficult to collect the direct efforts of this denomination 
for the instruction of negroes, as the reports of the Associations 
are not easily obtained, thej being printed and circulated chiefly 
within their respective bounds. If investigation were carefully 
made, it might be found that in many of the Associations of 
this denomination as much attention is paid to the instruction 
of the negroes as in the Sunbury Association, Georgia, already 
referred to. There are missionaries in destitute settlements 
who devote a portion of their time to this people. Perhaps in 
most of the chief towns in the South there are houses of public 
worship erected for the negroes alone. There are three, for 
example, in the city of Savannah. A year or two since I 
preached to the Baptist negroes in Petersburg, Va., in their own 
house of worship, crowded to suffocation. 

The Presbyterians have had ecclesiastical action wdthin the 
present period in the Synods of Virginia and North Carolina, 
South Carolina and Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Ala- 
bama, and in the Presbyteries of all these Synods. Some Pres- 
byteries have distinguished themselves by their zeal and activ- 
ity in the instruction of the negroes. 

It is unnecessary to transcribe the resolutions, reports, and 
acts of these several bodies. Some have already met the eye of 
the reader. The latest and most general and satisfactory re- 
turns in our possession were gathered from the statements of 
members of the General Assembly of 1839, from the slavehold- 
ing states, at a meeting called by themselves for the purpose of 
taking into consideration the religious instruction of the ne- 
groes, and of communicating information and suggesting plans 
of operation. It will suffice to present the sum of the whole in 
a few words. 

In the Synods of Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, Ten- 
nessee, and West Tennessee it is the practice of a number of 
ministers to preach to the negroes separately once on the Sab- 
bath or during the week. There are also Sabbath schools in 
some of the Churches for children and adults, and in all the 
houses of worship, with a few exceptions, a greater or less 
number of colored members and negroes form a portion of 



92 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

eveiy Sabbath congregation. In portions of these Synods the 
abolition excitement checked and in others materially retarded 
the work of instruction. 

In the Synods of Alabama and Mississippi almost all the 
ministers devote a portion of the Sabbath to the negroes. There 
are two or three missionaries within the bounds of these Syn- 
ods, and some flourishing Sabbath schools. Access, in many 
parts of the two states, may be had to the negroes, of unlimited 
extent. The abolition excitement injured the cause. 

In the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia, many minis- 
ters preach to the negroes separately on the Sabbath or during 
the week, and maintain Sabbath schools. Especially is this the 
fact along the seaboard of the two states. The Presbytery of 
Georgia has one missionary to the negroes, and in the country 
where he labors there are seven Sabbath schools connected 
with the Congregational and Baptist Churches, and upward of 
600 children and youth in a course of catechetical instruction. 
There are three stations for missionary preaching on the Sab- 
bath, occupied in rotation, and in addition, during the winter 
and spring, preaching on the plantations. There are colored 
members in all the Churches in this Synod, and accommoda- 
tions for the negroes in the houses of public worship. The ses- 
sions conduct the discipline of the colored members in the same 
manner that they do the whites. They are received into the 
Churches under the same form and partake of the ordinances 
at the same time. 

The ministers in the newly formed Presbytery of Florida 
are devoting attention to this field of labor, dispersing informa- 
tion and preaching as opportunity offers. 

Such are the principal facts touching the religious instruction 
of the negroes during the third period from 1820 to 1843. And 
in view of them, as we close the period, we feel warranted in 
considering it a period of the revival of religion in respect to 
this particular duty, throughout the Southern States, more es- 
pecially between the years 1829 and 1835. 

This revival came silently, extensively, and powei-fully, af- 
fecting masters, mistresses, ministers, members of the Church, 
and ecclesiastical bodies of all the different evangelical denom- 
inations. Some local associations of planters were formed, and 
societies on a large scale contemplated, and one brought to per- 



The Period of Decline: The Cause. 93 

feet organization. Sermons were preached and pamphlets pub- 
lished, the daily press lent its aid, and manuals of instruction 
were prepared and printed. Nor was there any opposition of 
moment to the work, conducted by responsible individuals, 
identified in feeling and interest with the country. Some por- 
tions of the South were in advance of others, both in respect to 
the acknowledgement and performance of the great duty, but 
the light was gradually diffusing itself everywhere. 

Such was the onward course of things when the excitement 
in the free states on the civil condition of the negro manifested 
itself in petitions to Congress, in the circulation of inflamma- 
tory publications, and other measures equally and as justly ob- 
noxious to the South, all of which had a disastrous influence 
on the success of the work we were attempting to do. The ef- 
fect of the excitement was to turn off the attention of the South 
from the religious to the civil condition of the people in ques- 
tion, and from the salvation of the soul to the defense and pres- 
ervation of political rights. The very foundations of Society 
were assailed, and men went forth to the defense. A tender- 
ness was begotten in the public mind on the whole subject, and 
every movement touching the improvement of the negroes 
was watched with jealousy. Timid, ambitious, and factious 
men, and men hostile to religion itself, and men desirous of 
warding off suspicion from themselves, agitated the public 
mind within our own borders. The result was to arrest in 
many places efforts happily begun and successfully prosecuted 
for the religious instruction of the negroes. It was considered 
best to disband schools and discontinue meetings, at least for a 
season. The formation of societies and the action of ecclesias- 
tical bodies in some degree ceased. 

The feelings of men being excited, those who had under- 
taken the religious instruction of the negi'oes were looked upon 
with suspicion, and some of them were obliged to quit the 
field. It was not considered that a separation might be made 
between the religious and the civil condition and interests of a 
people, and that a minister could confine himself to the one 
without interfering at all with the other. This entire effect 
upon the slave states of the movement in the free states, con- 
sidering all circumstances, was natural, but it was wrong; 
wrong because, let others act as they might, we should have 



94 1^^^ Gospel among the Slaves. 

gone forward and done Avhat was obviouslj our duty. We 
could have done it; for the whole an-angement of the religious 
instruction of the negroes, as to teachers, times, places, matter, 
and manner, was in our own power. And wrong again be- 
cause, admitting that the wishes of these professed friends of 
the negroes were to be consummated, no better could be done 
for the negroes, nor for ourselves, than to teach them their 
duty to God and man. The gospel certainly hurts no man and 
no body of men. Parts of the southern country took such ac- 
tions as was deemed necessary (if at all), calmly and_ decidedly, 
nor were any difficulties thrown in the way of the regular 
course of religious instruction. A missionary in the heart of 
three or four thousand negroes, during the period of excite- 
ment, visited plantations during the week, and met congrega- 
tions on the Sabbath, varying from 150 to 500 persons; yet it 
cannot be denied that the Northern movements did sensibly af- 
fect the feeling in favor of the religious instruction of the ne- 
groes throughout the whole slaveholding states, and the first 
prominent cause of the decline in the revival of which we 
speak was unquestionably those movements, and I mention 
the fact because the cause of that decline is sometimes inquired 
into. 

From information obtained by correspondence and in other 
ways, there are favorable indications that a reaction has taken 
place within one or two years past, and that, taking the coun- 
try throughout, more religious instruction is communicated to 
the negroes now than ever before. The old friends of the 
cause for the most part retain their integrity and labor on, 
while the Lord is impressing deeply the hearts and consciences 
of owners, and is raising up many youth in the ministry and in 
the Churches to carry forward the work more extensively. 

The third period is now completed, and with it this historical 
sketch of the religious instruction of the negroes, since their 
first introduction into this country to the present time. I shall 
add in the conclusion the following general observations: 

I. The negro race has existed in our country for two hun- 
dred and twenty -two years, in which time the gospel has been 
brought within the reach of and been communicated to multi- 
tudes, and tens of thousands of them have been converted, and 
have died in the hope of a blessed immoi-tality. And there are 



The Period of Decline: The Cause. 95 

at the present time tens of thousands connected by a creditable 
profession to the Church of Christ, and the gospel is reaching 
them to a greater extent and in greater purity and power than 
ever before. 

2. While there have been but few societies (and those limited 
in extent and influence) formed for the special object of pro- 
moting the moral and religious instruction of the negroes, and 
while there have been comparatively but few missionaries ex- 
clusively devoted to them, yet they have not been altogether 
overlooked by their owners nor neglected by the regular min- 
isters of the various leading denominations of Christians, as the 
facts adduced in this sketch testify. 

3. Yet it is a remarkable fact in the history of the negroes 
in our country that their regular, systematic religious instruc- 
tion has never received in the Churches at any time that gen- 
eral attention and effort which it demanded, and the people 
have consequently been left, both in the free and in the slave 
states, in great numbers, in moral darkness and destitution of 
the means of grace. 

4. The great and good work, therefore, of the thorough re- 
ligious instruction of our negroes remains to be performed. 

The colored population of the United States in 1830 was 
2,009,043 slaves and 319,599 free, making a total of 2,328,642. 
By the last census, 1840, it was 2,487,113 slaves and 386,235 free, 
with a total of 2,873,348. This aggregate of 2,873,348 is cer- 
tainly large enovigh to awaken our most serious attention, 
whether we view this people in a religious or civil point of 
light. 



CHAPTER VIII. 
The Negro without the Gospel. 

WE have given the foregoing sketch of mis- 
sionary operations among the negroes be- 
cause it was prepared by one eminently fitted for 
the task, and the materials gathered by him em- 
braced all accessible means of information. The 
fact that Dr. Jones was not a Methodist gives ad- 
ditional force to his highly complimentary notices 
of the labors of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
in this important field of evangelization. But after 
we have given due credit to the efforts of the early 
missionaries of the " Society for the Propagation 
of the Gospel in Foreign Parts," and the occa- 
sional visits of evangelists of the Presbyterian and 
Baptist Churches, it must be confessed that the 
greatest harvest of souls has been reaped by the 
followers of Coke and Asbury. Methodism was 
an organism filled with deep and earnest piety. 
The fervor of the worship accorded with the im- 
pulsive and emotional nature of the negro, and 
thousands of the race heartily embraced the truth 
under the preaching that touched their hearts and 
filled their imaginations with the liveliest pictures 
of religious joy. But these negroes were, for the 
most part, "house negroes." They were slaves 
being in immediate contact with white persons. 
(96) 




(96) 



REV. HENRY M. TURNER, 

Bishop of the African M. E. Church. 

(Sac pagu 370.) 



The Negro without the Gospel. 97 

From their masters and mistresses they insensibly 
imbibed many refining and elevating tendencies, 
and when these masters were professed Christians 
their influence helped to form a superior class of 
negro slaves. Many of the household servants 
were present at the family altar, and the daily 
prayers were addressed to the court of heaven in 
their behalf in common with the white members of 
the family. Lectures on the Sabbath day were 
given for the benefit of the negroes when there 
was no regular service by a Christian minister. 
These advantages created a favored class among 
the negroes, and the eye of a Southerner can al- 
most instantly detect, by the grace of manner and 
the easy bearing of the person, the members of 
this " household of saints " belonging to the " old- 
en time." 

But the great majority of slaves were not thus 
favored. Living to themselves on large rice and 
cotton plantations, they had no social and, in the ""'^ 
earlier times of this century, no religious facilities 
for development or progress. Having no standard 
of morals higher than their own, and coming in 
contact with no correcting authority, not even the 
reproof of well-wishing equals, we cannot be sur- 
prised at the low moral status of the "plantation 
negro." The proofs of this depravity are very 
numerous ; and as the state of the negro previous 
to missionary efforts will be contrasted in these 
pages by the results of pioneer work among them 
at a subsequent period, we present the picture of 
7 



98 The Gos-pel among the Slaves. 

the African slave without the gospel as that pic- 
ture has been drawn by those who knew him in all 
the lights and shadows of his being. 

Edwin C. Holland, Esq., published in Charles- 
ton, S. C, his " Refutations of Calumnies against 
the Southern and Western States in 1822." Re- 
ferring to the practice of allowancing the negroes 
in the lower parts of the Atlantic States, Mr. Hol- 
land says: 

If it be asked why those in the lower country are allotvanced 
while those of the interior are not, the answer is that such are 
the facilities of transportation to market and the disposition to 
thievery so innate to the blacks, that a planter's barn would in 
a very short time become bankrupt of its wealth, and the whole 
of his substance vanish like unsubstantial moonshine. 

Every one acquainted with the surroundings of 
the rice planters in South Carolina and Georgia 
will readily vouch for the correctness of this state- 
ment. In almost every section of the thickly pop- 
ulated regions there will be found agents of Satan, 
who tempt the slaves in time of slavery, and the 
hired freedman in the time of freedom. These 
execrable wretches are generally foreigners, and 
by keeping a small stock of groceries on hand in 
little shops disguise the sale of ardent spirits to ne- 
groes. These tempters have no moral restraints 
of any kind. They induce the negroes to buy ar- 
dent spirits, and in order to pay for the indulgence 
the slave, having no money, carries to the gin mill 
his master's rice or whatever would be received as 
a subtitute for money. These leeches, by making 
enormous profits both ways, on the execrable liq- 



The Negro without the Gos-pel. 99 

uors they sold and the merchandise taken in ex- 
change, soon laid the foundations of large for- 
tunes, acquired, in the beginning at least, by a 
trade but one degree below, if not indeed as infa- 
mous as the kidnapping of men and women on the 
shores of Africa. 

Reputable merchants were always careful in 
their dealings with the negroes on these large 
plantations, but there were so many willing tools, 
known in the city courts as " fences," people who 
assisted the thief in the disposal of stolen property, 
that the master was often compelled to appear 
harsh and cruel, when a contrary course would 
have ended in his own financial ruin. There are 
traditions in all of our Atlantic seaboard territory 
of places, islands, swamps, dense coverts far away 
from civilization, where this unholy traffic has 
maintained large populations unknown to the tak- 
ers of the census. Magnified these stories may be, 
but there is some foundation for them, and those 
who so fiercely denounced the rice planters of fifty 
years ago would do well to remember that all the 
facts have never appeared in their defense against 
the charge of inhuman treatment of their negroes. 

But the African, as a savage, transported to 
America, must bring the sins and vicious nature 
which belong to his people and his tribe. The 
foolish dream of a virtuous savage, communing 
with nature, and rising to the highest altitudes 
of virtuous humanity, has long been dispelled, as 
nearer acquaintance revealed to the world the truth. 



lOO The Gosj>el among the Slaves. 

The fearful picture of the heathen who knows not 
God, as given by St. Paul in the first chapter of 
the Epistle to the Romans, is as true to-day as in 
the day in which it was written. We cannot be 
surprised then that these negroes, many of them 
born in Africa, should deserve the severe sentence 
of Dr. Delcho, of the Episcopal Church, in a pub- 
lication issued in 1823. " Ignorant and indolent 
by nature," he says, "improvident and depra;ved 
by habit, and destitute of the moral principle, as 
they generally appear to be, ages and generations 
must pass away before they could be made virtu- 
ous, honest, and useful members of society." 
This language is too severe. "Destitute of the 
moral principle," they are not, as a race, for we 
shall have occasion to produce some of the finest 
specimens of moral integrity that the annals of hu- 
man character can show. Nevertheless, it is not 
surprising that observing men, such as Dr. Delcho, 
should use such unqualified language. They "gen- 
erally appear " to lack the foundation upon which 
Christianity must build if the gospel is to mold the 
life and habits of the negro. 

The same deficiency, the absence of the moral 
sense, is attributed to the Chinese, as a nation, by 
Bayard Taylor. If we mistake not, he makes the 
charge without any qualifying sentence. But Mr. 
Taylor did not weigh his words. If the Chinaman 
and the negro have no moral sense, it is useless to 
preach the gospel to them. They have no souls 
according to this dark view of their condition. 



The JVegro without the Gospel. loi 

But Chinamen have been converted and have tes- 
tified in life and in death, witnessfSg a good con- 
fession under circumstances not greatly dissimilar 
to the trials of the apostles of the first century. So, 
also, we are prepared to exhibit ni^my instances of 
commanding eloquence, testimonies of ^faithfulness 
not inferior to Paul's integrity and Peter's firmness. 
Even death itself could not break the bands of 
truthful allegiance, or shake the confidence of 
these black heroes of the cross. 

Notwithstanding these instances, however, the 
life of the slave, removed from the influence and 
example of the whites, was a scene of great de- i^- 
pravity. Gen. Thomas Pinckney, in a work pub- 
lished in Charleston in 1822, says: 

Everything consigned to the management of the slave, who 
has neither the incitement of interest nor the fear of certain 
punishment, is neglected or abused; horses and all inferior an- 
imals left to their charge are badly attended ; their provender 
finds its way to the dramshop, and they are tised without dis- 
cretion or mercy; their carriages and harness are slightly and 
badly cleaned; the tools of the mechanics are broken and lost 
through neglect; their very clothing becomes more expensive 
through their carelessness arising from the knowledge that 
they must be supplied with all these articles, as well as their 
subsistence, at their master's expense, and waste, that moth of 
domestic establishments, universally prevails. 

The Hon. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, in an 
address before the Agricultural Society of South 
Carolina in 1829, says : 

There needs no stronger illustration of the doctrine of hu- 
man depravity than the state of morals on plantations in gen- 
eral. Besides the mischievovis tendency of bad exampls in 
paixnts and elders, the little negro is often taught by these his 



I02 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

natural instructors that he may commit any vice he can con- 
ceal from his superiors, and thus falsehood and deception are 
among the earliest lessons they imbibe. Their advance in 
years is but a progression to the higher grades of iniquity. 
The violation of the seventh commandment is viewed in a more 
venial light than in fashionable European circles. Their depre- 
dations of rice have been estimated to amount to twenty-five 
per cent, on the gross average of crops, and this calculation 
was made, after fifty years' experience, by one whose liberal 
provision for their wants left no excuse for their ingratitude. 

Hon. Whitemarsh B. Seabrook, in an "Essay 
on the Management of Slaves," Charleston, 1834, 
says ; 

As human beings, however, slaves are liable to all the in- 
firmities of our nature. Ignorant and fanatical, none are more 
easily excited. Incendiaries might readily embitter their en- 
joyments and render them a curse to themselves and the com- 
munity. . . . The prominent offenses of the slave are to be 
traced, in most instances, to the use of intoxicating liquors. 
This is one of the main sources of every insurrectionary move- 
ment Avhich has occun-ed in the United States. We are, there- 
fore, bound by interest as well as the common feeling of hu- 
manity to arrest the progress of what may emphatically be 
called the contagious disease of our colored population. What 
have become of the millions of freemen who once inhabited 
our widely spread country.? Ask the untiring votaries of Bac- 
chus. Can there be a doubt but that the authority of the mas- 
ter alone prevents his slaves from experiencing the fate of the 
aborigines of America.'' . . . At one time polygamy was a 
common crime; it is now of rare occurrence. . . . Between 
slaves on the same plantation there is a deep sympathy of feel- 
ing which binds them so closely together that a crime commit- 
ted by one of their number is seldom discovered through their 
instrumentality. This is an obstacle to the establishment of an 
efficient police, which the domestic legislator can with difficulty 
surmount. 

C. W. Gooch, Esq., of Henrico County, Vir- 



The Negi'o without the Gospel. 103 

ginia, in a prize essay on agriculture in Virginia, 

says: 

The slave feels no inducement to execute work with effect. 
He has a particular art of slighting it, and seeming to be busy 
when in fact he is doing little or nothing. Nor can lie be made 
to take proper care of stock, tools, or anything else. He will 
rarely take care of his clothes or his own health, much less of 
his companion's, when sick and requiring his aid and kindness. 
There is perhaps not in nature a more heedless, thoughtless 
human being than a Virginia field negro. With no care upon 
his mind, with warm clothing and plenty of food under a good 
master, he is far the happier man of the two. His maxim is: 
" Come day, go day, God send Sunday." His abhorrence of the 
poor white man is vei-y great. He may sometimes feel a re- 
flected respect for him, in consequence of the confidence and 
esteem of his master and others. But this trait is remarkable in 
the white, as in the black man. All despise poverty and seem 
to worship wealth. To the losses which arise from the disposi- 
tions of our slaves must be added those which are occasioned by 
their habits. There seetns to be an almost entire absence of moral 
principle among the mass of our colored popidation. But details 
upon this subject would be here misplaced. To steal and not [ 
to be detected is a merit among them, as it was with certain 
people in ancient times, and is at this day with some vinenlight- 
ened portions of mankind. And the vice which they hold in f 
greatest abhorrence is that of telling upon one another. There 
are many exceptions, it is true, but this description embi-aces 
more than a majority. The numerous free negroes and worth- 
less, dissipated whites who have no visible means of support, and 
who are rarely seen at work, derive their chief subsistence from 
the slaves. These thefts amount to a good deal in the course of 
the year, and operate like leeches on the fair income of agricul- 
ture. They vary, however, in every county and neighborhood 
in exact proportion as the market for the plunder varies. In 
the vicinity of towns and villages they are the most serious. 
Besides the actual loss of property occasioned by them, they 
involve the riding of our horses at night, the corruption of the 
habits and the injury of the health of the slaves, for whisky is 
the pi-ice generally received for them. 



I04 The Gospel mno^ig the Slaves. 

These are gloomy pictures of the moral qualities 
of the negro on the large plantations of the South, 
but those who were fully acquainted with the slave 
and his surroundings cannot deny the accuracy of 
the statements we have copied from writers of sev- 
enty years ago. It must be observed, however, 
that these slaves were so situated as to come un- 
der the influence of the white race to a very small 
extent, and these representatives of a higher civil- 
ization were by no means qualified to instruct or 
elevate the negro. In many instances, as Mr. 
Gooch says, these "poor whites " were not only 
the accomplices in crime in common with the ne- 
groes, but they were the instigators to petty thefts 
and raids upon the supplies of the planters. 

If the negro slaves were thus depraved and al- 
most destitute of moral principle, what can be 
said of those negroes who were set free early in 
this century, in the states of the North, as well as 
those of the South? Very many experiments were 
made in the South, and the conviction of conserv- 
ative minds, after full and fair trial, was that the 
negro's condition was not improved by emancipa- 
tion. The picture drawn by Dr. Jones gives the 
following view of the moral and religious condi- 
tion of the free negro population : 

They are emphaticallj^ lovers of pleasure and show. All 
kinds of amusements, except those which involve labor or re- 
flection, possess great attraction for them, and their indulgence 
is limited only bj their means of access to them. 

With a passion for dress, they frequently spend all they 
make in fine clothes ; their appearance on the Sabbath and on 



The Negro zuithoiit the Gospel. 105 

public days is anything else but an index of their fortunes and 
comforts at home. They hire clothing for set occasions if they 
have none sufficiently good. 

Proverbially idle, the majority work not except from neces- 
sity, and as soon as they collect a little money they must enjoy 
themselves upon it. They have been known to refuse employ- 
ment because not exactly out of money. Their love of ease 
overcomes that of gain. This propensity to idleness exposes 
them to manifold temptations, plunges them into numerous 
vices, and subjects them to great privation and suffering. 

They are amazingly improvident. One melting ray from a 
summer sun dissipates every remembrance of a long and dreary 
winter of suffering. The golden season of labor is passed in 
lounging along the streets and basking in the sun, or a lazy, 
bungling, and fitful attempt at work. Those that have regular 
trades and employment do better. Profane swearing, quarrel- 
ing, fighting, and Sabbath breaking are such common vices that 
they require no special notice. 

Drunkenness, with its attendant woes, hui-ries large numbers 
of them to sudden and untimely ends. Low, dark, secluded, 
and filthy dramshops are favorite resorts ; often the deposito- 
ries of stolen goods. I have seen them living upon a few 
crackers a day and as much whisky as they could procure ; 
their life spent in idleness, nightly revels, drunkenness, and de- 
bauchery. 

Theft is still with them, in a state of freedom, a character- 
istic vice. Their petty larcenies are without number, and they 
advance to burglaries and give constant emploj'ment to police 
officers. Let any one attend the city courts in our chief towns 
in the free states or read the reports of cases in the newspapers, 
and he will be surprised at the number of colored persons among 
prisoners charged with crime. Stabbing and murder have, of 
late years, not become infrequent. 

Lewdness is without bounds. Great numbers, both in the 
slave and free states, not only pursue the vice, but are trained 
up to it as a means of living. Infanticide and the crimes and 
wretchedness connected with the vice are found among them. 
The crime of infanticide is far more common among the free 
negroes in the free than in the slave states. Indeed, it is by no 
means common among the free negroes in the slave states. 



io6 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

Their marriage relations, too, are subject to dissolutions from 
infidelity and various other causes. It is a remai-kable fact 
that a large proportion of those of marriageable age remain sin- 
gle, especially in the free states, where the support of a family 
is difficult. This fact has a considerable bearing on their state 
of morals. 

With a few extracts from different publications of sixty years 
ago, this branch of our inquiry shall be dismissed : 

" The experience of the states north and east of the Susque- 
hanna, with regard to this class of persons, is not on the whole 
much more encouraging — i. c, than that of the Southern States, 
where it is bad. The number of respectable individuals is con- 
siderably greater, indeed, but the character of the mass nearly 
the same. Nor can it be urged that they are here debarred ac- 
cess to the ordinary means of moral and intellectual regenera- 
tion. On the contrary, schools are established for them, they 
are aided in procuring the conveniences of religious instruction 
and divine worship, they are united into societies adapted to 
produce self-respect and mental activity, exemplary attention is 
paid in numerous instances to the regulation of their habits and 
principles. They have every facility which is enjoyed by the 
laboring classes among the whites of acquiring a plain educa- 
tion and a comfortable subsistence and of making provison for 
their children. They have the same legal security in person 
and property, and generally the same political rights as the rest 
of the community." (Walsh's Appeal.) 

" Taken as a whole, the fi-ee blacks must be considered the 
most worthless and indolent of the citizens of the United States. 
It is well known that throughout the whole extent of our Un- 
ion they are looked upon as the very drones and pests of soci- 
ety. Nor does this character arise from their disabilities and dis- 
franchisement, by which the law attempts to guard against them. 
In the nonslaveholding states, where they have been more ele- 
vated by law, this kind of population is in a worse condition and 
much more troublesome to society than in the slaveholding and 
especially in the planting states. Ohio, some years ago, formed 
a sort of land of promise for this deluded class, to which many 
have repaired from the slaveholding states ; and what has been 
the consequence.'' They have been most harshly expelled from 
that state and forced to take refusre in a foreign land. Look 



The Negro without the Gospel. 107 

through all the Northern States and mark the class upon whom 
the eye of the police is most steadily and constantly kept; see 
with what vigilance and care they are hunted down from place to 
place, and you cannot fail to see that idleness and improvidence 
are at the root of all their misfortunes. Not only does the ex- 
perience of our own country illustrate the fact, but others fur- 
nish abundant testimony." (President Dew.) 

" Governor Giles, upon a calculation based on the average 
number of convictions in the state of Virginia from the peni- 
tentiary repoi-ts up to 1829, shows that ' crimes among the free 
blacks are more than three times as numerous as among the 
whites, and four and a half times more numerous than among 
slaves,' and that the proportion of crime is still not as great 
among the free blacks in Virginia as in Massachusetts. Hence 
it is inferred that they are not so degraded and vicious in Vir- 
ginia, a slave state, as in Massachusetts, a free state." {Ibid.) 

" We are not to wonder that this class of citizens should be 
so depraved and immoral. Idleness and consequent want are 
of themselves sufficient to generate a catalogue of vices of the 
most mischievous and destructive character. Look at the penal 
prosecutions of every country and mark the situation of those 
who fall victims to the law, and what a frightful proportion do 
we find among the indigent and idle classes of society! Idle- 
ness generates want, want gives rise to temptation, and strong 
temptation makes the villain. Mr. Archer, of Virginia, well ob- 
served in his speech before the Colonization Society that the 
free blacks were destined by an insuperable barrier to the want 
of occupation, thence to the want of food, thence to the dis- 
tresses which ensue that want, thence to the settled deprivation 
which grows out of those distresses and is nursed at their bo- 
som." {Ibid.) 

A colony of free blacks were expelled from Ohio in 1832 on 
account of their dissoluteness and dishonesty and misery, being 
considered in the light of vagabonds and nuisances. A college 
for free negroes was projected in New Haven about the same 
time, and the respectable citizens opposed and suppressed it, 
because the increase of that class of population was considered 
an evil. 

" Few of them (the free negro population) are engaged in 
any trade or commerce or have any hopes of elevating them- 



io8 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

selves to that situation. Nine-tenths of them are in svibordi- 
nate and menial situations, and likelj thus to remain at low 
wages. That thej labor under the most oppressive disadvan- 
tages which their freedom can bj no means counterbalance is 
too obvious to admit of doubt." 

" I waive all inquiry whether this be right or wrong. I 
speak of things as they are, not as they might or ought to be. 
They are cut off from the most remote chance of amalgamation 
with the white population by feelings or prejudices, call them 
what you will, that ai-e ineradicable. The situation-of the ma- 
jority of them is more unfavorable than that of many of the 
slaves. With all the burdens, cares, and responsibilities of free- 
dom, they have few or none of its substantial benefits. Their 
associations are and must be chiefly with slaves. Their right 
of suffrage gives them little, if anj', political influence, and they 
are practically, if not theoretically, excluded from representa- 
tion in our public councils. No merit, no sei^vices, no talents 
can ever elevate the great mass of them to a level with the 
whites. Occasionally an exception may arise. A colored indi- 
vidual of great talents, merits, and wealth may emerge from the 
crowd. Cases of this kind are, to the last degree, rare. The 
colored people are subjected to legal disabilities more or less 
galling and severe in every state in the Union. . . . There 
is no reason to expect that the lapse of centuries will make any 
change in this respect — /. e., the jealousy with which they are 
regarded. They will always, unhappily, be regarded as an in- 
fei-ior race." ("Carey's Letters," Letter 12.) 

Mr. Everett, in a speech before the Colonization Society, 
1833, says: "The free blacks form in Massachusetts about one 
seventj'-fifth part of the population. One-sixth of the convicts 
in our prisons are of this class." 

A memorial presented to the Legislature of Connecticut in 
1834 states: "Not a week, hardly a day, passes that they (the 
colored people) are not implicated in the violation of some 
law. Assaults and batteries, insolence to the whites, compel- 
ling a breach of the peace, riots in the streets, petty thefts, 
and continual trespasses on property are such common occur- 
rences, resulting from the license they enjoy, that they have 
ceased to become subjects of remark. It is but recently that a 
band of negroes paraded the streets of New Haven armed with 



• The Negro without the Gospel. 109 

clubs and pistols and dirks with the avowed purpose of prevent- 
ing the law of the land from being enforced against one of their 
species. Upon being accosted by an officer of justice and com- 
manded to retire peaceably to their homes, their only reply con- 
sisted of abuse and threats of personal violence. The law was 
overshadowed and the officer consulted his own safety in a 
timely retreat." The memorial then proceeds to show that the 
evil complained of has so rapidly progressed that the whites 
have become the subjects of insult and abuse whenever they 
have refused to descend to familiarity with them ; that them- 
selves, their wives and children have been driven from the 
pavements, where they have not submitted to personal conflict; 
that from the licentiousness of their general habits they have 
invariably depreciated the value of property by their location in 
its neighborhood, and that from their notorious uncleanliness 
and filth, thej' have. become common nuisances to the commu- 
nity. (Memorial.) 

From the report of the warden of the Connecticut State 
Prison, 1838, it appears that " the number of blacks in confine- 
ment compared with the whites is ten to twelve times greater 
than is the propoi-tion of the black to the white population in 
the state." (Journal of Commerce, May 16, 183S.) 

" The records of crime in the free states show a frightful 
disproportion in the numbers of white and black offenders, and 
especially in those states where there are no disabilities or re- 
strictions by law imposed upon the blacks." 

"In Massachusetts they are i-74th part of the population, 
yet they are in the proportion of 1-6 of the convicts in the state 
prison; in Connecticut, i-34th part of the whole, 1-3 of the 
number in the penitentiary; New York, i-35th, and 1-4 of the 
convicts; New Jersey, i-i3th, and 1-3; Pennsylvania, i-35th, and 
1-3. In Ohio the black population is i to 115 whites; convicts, 
7 to 100. Vermont, by the census of 1830, contained 277,000 
souls; 918 wei-e negroes. In 1831 there were 74 convicts in the 
prison, and of these 24 were negroes. When compared with 
what is reported of the proportion of negroes in the prisons of 
the slaveholding states, it is shown that the proportion of ne- 
groes in the penitentiaries of the free states is in the ratio of 
more than ten to one in favor of the slaveholding states. The 
free negroes in Ohio in the aggregate are in no better condition. 



no The Gospel a7noiig the Slaves. 

therefore, than the slaves in Kentucky. They are excluded 
from social intercourse with the whites, and whatever of educa- 
tion you may give them will not tend to elevate their standing 
to any considerable extent. (From the report of the committee 
on the judiciary, relative to the repeal of laws reposing restric- 
tions and disabilities on blacks and mulattoes, by Mr. Gushing, 
Febi-uary 21, 1S35. Agreed to unanimously. Legislature of 
Ohio.) 

These testimonies are taken from a wide range 
of authorities, and there is not a dissenting voice 
among them. The sudden emancipation of the 
negro race in 1820 or 1830 would have resulted in 
desolation and ruin to every interest of the South- 
ern States. Can any one be surprised that the 
owners of slaves and those who owned none were 
alike interested in resisting the furious fanaticism 
of New England abolitionists? 



CHAPTER IX. 
Negro Insurrections- 

IT is not an uncommon thing for the hostile writ- 
ers of the North to declare that the inhumani- 
ties practiced upon the slaves were the causes of 
rebellion among them. Attempts at recovering 
their freedom were made, we are told, because 
Southern masters were cruel and drove their ne- 
groes to insurrection as the only remedy for their 
intolerable evils. The fact is that the first insur- 
rection of note in this country, an insurrection of 
blacks against the whites, occurred in the city of 
New York in 1712. A Mr. Neau had established 
a school for the religious instruction of the blacks, 
and when the negroes, who numbered about twelve 
hundred, formed a conspiracy for the extermina- 
tion of the whites, it was charged immediately that 
the school of Mr. Neau was at the bottom of all 
the trouble. A fearful state of excitement existed 
for a time, but when the calm inquiry of the judi- 
cial authorities was made, the truth became appar- 
ent. " The guilty negroes were found to be such 
as never came to Mr. Neau's school, and what is 
very observable, the persons whose negroes were 
found most guilty were such as were the declared 
opposers of making them Christians." 

This is a remarkable proof of the salutary influ- 

(111) 



112 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

ence of the gospel among the negro race. The 
influence of a single school, taught by one man, 
prevented the entire complicity of a race in the 
attempt to burn a city and to murder the whole 
population. The dreadful massacre was to begin 
at the hour of midnight, and from refreshing slum- 
bers a whole city was to be deluged with blood. 
Providential interference saved the city of New 
York in 171 2, but what motives prompted the ne- 
groes of New York to insurrection? 

Another insurrection is upon record, occurring 
in New York in 1741. It is doubtful, however, 
whether this was a real rebellion or only the crea- 
ture of the excited imagination of the New York 
people. Similar "scares" were experienced by 
Boston, of all the places in the world. But these 
instances are wanting in positive proof. Never- 
theless, what state of things gave rise to the fear 
of insurrection? Was it the cruel treatment of 
the slaves by their Northern masters? It may 
have been so; but one notable fact may be stated 
as part of the record. At no time did the black 
population of the North number one-half or one- 
third of the entire inhabitants, and in a contest of 
mere physical ability the negroes were never the 
equals to the whites. On the contrary, in the 
states of South Carolina and Georgia, there were 
large sections of the country in which the blacks 
outnumbered the whites by five to one. What 
power was it that preserved the authority of the 
masters, if it was not the moral power exerted by 



Negro Insurrections. 113 

a superior race? Could this power control the 
thousands who were exasperated against the hun- 
dreds of whites, if there were no ties, no kindness, 
no respect engendered by humane treatment, and 
uniform justice among the masters ? 

There was a rebellion and an attempt at insur- 
rection in South Carolina in 1730, and three in 
1739, but these were fomented by the Spaniards 
of St. Augustine, and cannot be regarded as the 
instinctive movements of the slaves. 

The insurrection of 18 16 in South Carolina is 
the only one in which negroes hitherto religious 
were found to be concerned in the capacity of 
leaders. "Two brothers," says Mr. F. S. De- 
liesseline, " engaged in this rebellion could read 
and write, and were hitherto of unexceptionable 
characters. They were religious, and had always 
been regarded in the light of faithful servants. A 
few appeared to have been actuated by the instinct 
of the most brutal licentiousness and by the lust 
of plunder; but most of them by wild and fanatic 
ideas of the rights of man, and the misconceived 
injunctions of Holy Writ." 

Of the insurrection of 1822 in Charleston, S. C, 
Mr. Benjamin Elliott writes: "This description 
of our population had been allowed to assemble 
for religious instruction. The designing leaders 
in the scheme of villainly availed themselves of 
these occasions to instill sentiments of ferocity by 
falsifying the Bible." After showing how this 
falsification of the Scriptures was done Mr. Elliott 



114 '^^^^ Gospel among the Slaves. 

remarks: "Another impediment to the progress of 
conspiracy will be the fidelity of some of our ne- 
groes. The servant, who is false to his master, 
would be false to his God. One act of perfidy is 
but the first step in the road of corruption and of 
baseness, and those who on this occasion have 
proved ungrateful to their owners have also been 
hypocrites in religion." 

Referring to the same affair of 1822, Mr. C. C. 
Pinckney says: "On investigation it appeared 
that all concerned in that transaction, except one, 
had seceded from the regular Methodist Church 
in 181 7 and formed a separate establishment in 
connection with the African Methodist Society of 
Philadelphia, whose bishop, a colored man named 
Allen, had assumed that office, being himself a se- 
ceder from the Methodist Church of Pennsylva- 
nia. At this period Mr. S. Bryan, the local min- 
ister of the regular Methodist Church in Charles- 
ton, was so apprehensive of sinister designs that 
he addressed a letter to the city council, on file in 
the council chamber, dated November 8, 1817, 
stating at length the reasons of his suspicion." 

"The South Hampton affair in Virginia in 1832 
was originated by a man under color of religion, 
a pretender to inspiration. As far back as 1825 
the Rev. Dr. J. H. Rice, in a discourse on the in- 
jury done to religion by ignorant teachers, warned 
the people of Virginia against the neglect of the 
religious instruction of the negroes, and the dan- 
ger of leaving them to the control of their igno- 



Negro Insurrections. 115 

rant, fanatical, and designing preachers. His 
prophecy had its fulfillment in South Hampton. 
If we refer to the West Indies, we shall behold re- 
ligion exerting a restraining influence upon the 
people, and particularly on one occasion all the 
negroes attached to the Moravian Missionary 
Churches to a man supported the authority of 
their masters against the insurgents. 

"Enough has been said to satisfy reasonable 
and Christian men that sound religious instruction 
will contribute to safety. There are men who 
have no knowledge of religion in their own per- 
sonal experience, and who have not been careful 
to notice its genuine effects upon servants, and 
they will place little or no confidence in anything 
that might be said in favor of it. They can place 
more reliance upon visible preventives of their own 
invention than upon principles of moral conduct 
wrought in the soul and maintained in supremacy 
by divine power, whose nature they do not under- 
stand, and whose influence, however good, is in- 
visible, and for that very reason not to be trusted 
by them. Nor have they either the candor or the 
willingness to make a distinction between false and 
true religion. In their opinion the gospel is no 
benefit to the world. Such men we are con- 
strained to leave to the influence of time and ob- 
servation, and invoke for them the influence of 
the spirit of God. I shall never forget the remark 
of a venerable colored preacher made with refer- 
ence to the South Hampton tragedy. With his 



ii6 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

eyes full oi tears and his whole manner indicating 
the deepest emotion, he said: 'Sir, it is the gos- 
pel that we ignorant and wicked people need. If 
you will give us the gospel, it will do more for the 
obedience of servants and the peace of the com- 
munity than all your guards and guns and bayo- 
nets.' This same Christian minister, on receiv- 
ing a packet of inflammatory pamphlets through 
the post office and discovering their character and 
intention, immediately called upon the Mayor of 
the city and delivered them into his hands. Who 
can estimate the value, in a community, of one 
such man acting under the influence of the gospel 
of peace? " 

We may append to these remarks of Dr. Jones 
the following inquiry: Who can measure the atroc- 
ity of the society or the individual who, in the safe 
shelter of a New England town, could write and 
print pamphlets and books designed to excite an 
insurrection of the slaves and the murder of their 
masters? Is there a more horrible act of wicked- 
ness in the whole catalogue of human crimes? Yet 
the time has been and now is when the writers of 
such pamphlets and the authors of incendiary 
tracts have been praised in the pulpit, and hymns 
to their memory chanted in the house of God by 
professed ministers of the gospel I 



CHAPTER X. 
Beginnings of Missionary Work. 

IN 1758 Mr. Wesley made his first African con- 
vert, and the first African convert in the world 
to a Protestant religion. This was a slave woman 
belonging to one Mr. Nathaniel Gilbert, a rich 
West India planter. This conversion took place 
during Mr. Gilbert's sojourn in England. Of the 
glorious results of this conversion and also that of 
Mr. Gilbert every reader of Methodist history is 
familiar. It was the means of planting Methodism 
in the West India Islands. 

" Slavery was introduced into Georgia in 1740- 
Consequently it was not there during the stay of 
the two Wesleys, nor at the time of the first visit of 
Whitefield. On the second visit of the latter, how- 
ever, it had been just introduced. During his 
third, fourth, fifth, and sixth visits, we have the 
repeated record of his preaching to slaves in the 
congregations of the whites from Georgia to New 
England. In more than one instance there is the 
account of a happy conversion. 

" On Mr. Whitefield' s seventh and last visit to 
America he brought with him a young man, Cor- 
nelius Winter by name, who became the first mis- 
sionary to the negroes.* The young man found a 

* Smith's " History of Methodism in Georgia." 

(117) 



Ii8 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

stanch friend in James Habersham, afterward 
Governor of the colony. He had come out the 
year before with Whitefield to act as teacher, but 
had now taken to merchandising. Winter's first 
post was that of catechist on the plantation of a 
retired Episcopal clergyman. His efforts seem to 
have been marked with very little success from the 
first. This was doubtless not owing either to the 
young man's inability or lack of zeal, but simply 
to the fact that at that early day the planters of 
Georgia, as elsewhere, were not in sympathy with 
the effort to spiritually enlighten their slaves. Still 
Winter kindled a little beam of light here and 
there that doubtless continued to shine for many 
a day. In a year's time, discouraged with the op- 
position he met, Winter returned to England. 

"The year before the coming of Cornelius Win- 
ter to Georgia saw the building of the first Meth- 
odist chapel in New York, and the second in 
America. On the list of subscriptions raised for 
this building appeared the names of many African 
slaves. They were allowed a place in the congre- 
gation of the whites, and treated with respect and 
consideration within the walls of the building their 
zeal had helped to rear. Embury preached to 
them, and so did Webb. Doubtless good Mother 
Barbara showed many of them the way of life. 
Later we find Boardman, Pilmoor, Rankin, Shad- 
ford, Owens, Watters, Williams, and the other 
early Methodist itinerants, preaching to them here 
and there, as they would congregate with the 



Beginnings of Missionary Work. 119 

whites. Asbury, from the moment of his landing 
on the continent, had his heart filled with plans 
for their spiritual amelioration. 

"Almost simultaneously with the introduction of 
Methodism came cotton into the colonies. Now 
let us pause for a moment and see what relation 
one had to the other, and herein trace the work- 
ings of that providence which had in its hands the 
shaping of ends then little dreamed of by man. 
Before the introduction of cotton, we find indigo, 
rice, and tobacco the three staples of the colonies, 
according to geographical situation. For some 
years, owing to the lack of certain facilities, all 
three had begun to decline in marketable value, 
especially rice and indigo. The planters were 
awakening to the realization that in the end it cost 
as much, or almost as much, to maintain their 
slaves as they gained from their crops. Dissatis- 
faction with slavery was, therefore, rife in the col- 
onies, and the thought of emancipation had come 
to be seriously entertained. 

'"King Cotton' suddenly appeared upon the 
scene. He made his appearance at first only in a 
few fleecy stalks raised in flower gardens. But 
some one went to experimenting, and when, in 
1784, eight bags of this staple arrived in Liverpool, 
the customhouse officers seized it on the plea that 
so much could not be raised in America.* 

"In 1787, just four years after the last British 

* Barnes's " United States History." 



V^ 



I20 The Gospel atnong the Slaves. 

soldier had left American shores, the first cotton 
mill was established at Beverly, Mass. But not 
yet had cotton raising become profitable. One 
great obstacle stood in the way: to clean a pound 
of cotton by hand required a day's labor. On 
some of the plantations this work of picking the 
fleece from the seed used to be performed at night 
often by members of the planter's family. It is 
related of more than one of the earlier Methodist 
preachers, especially of Bishop Asbury, that while 
seated around the fireside of their host they would 
engage with the family and servants in picking out 
the cotton seed. Doubtless at such a time other 
seed were dropped by the way, the precious seed 
of immortal life. 

"This slow and tedious way of picking out the 
cotton seed could not continue if profit was to be 
realized from the staple. Something must be 
done — some expeditious means of separating lint 
from seed must be found. Much was said, and 
much written. The question was agitated from 
New England to Georgia. Inventive genius was 
aroused. Many suggestions were made, various 
plans were tried. Then came the invention of the 
cotton gin by Eli Whitney, a Massachusetts man, 
while residing with the widow of Gen. Nathaniel / 
Greene, at Mulberry Grove, Ga. But even he 
did not succeed at first. It was a woman, after 
all, who gave him his principal idea. Said Mrs. 
Greene: 'Crook the pins.' This he did, when 
lo ! the result gave to the world one of the foremost 



Beginnings of Missionai'y Work. 121 

inventions of the nineteenth century. The news 
of the wonderful invention spread from state to 
state. The spirits of the planters began to rise. 
Cotton would yet become profitable to cultivate, 
and the source of a great revenue. No thought 
now of emancipation." 

The reader will be interested in the fact that the 
first great monopoly of inventions in the United 
States was the manufacture of the cotton gin. 
Whitney's success, by the help of Mrs. Greene, 
led to the construction of a machine that was ab- 
solutely indispensable to the planters. This fact 
promoted the cupidity and a^varice of the inventor, 
and he attempted to extort an enormous price for 
the use of his cotton gin. The following extract 
we take from the columns of the Louisville ( Ga.) 
Gazette, of November 12, 1800. It is a part of 
the message of his Excellency, James Jackson, 
Governor of the State of Georgia, addressed to 
the Legislature of the State : 

And here I request your attention to the patent gin monop- 
oly, under the law of the United States, entitled "An Act to ex- 
tend the privilege of obtaining patents for useful discoveries 
and inventions to certain persons therein mentioned, and to en- 
large and define the penalties for violating the rights of pat- 
entees." The operation of this law is a prevention and cramp- 
ing of genius, as respects cotton machines, a manifest injury to 
the community, and in many respects a cruel extortion on the 
gin holders. The two important states of Georgia and South 
Carolina, where this article appears to be becoming the princi- 
pal staple, are made tributary to two persons who have obtained 
the patent, and who demand, as I am informed, two hundred 
dollars for the mere liberty of using a ginning machine, in the 
creation of which the patentees do not expend one farthing, and 



122 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

which sum, as they now think their right secured, it is in their 
power in future licenses to raise to treble that amount, from the 
information given me by a respectable merchant of this town, 
whose letter on the subject is marked No. 6. When Miller and 
Whitney, the patentees, first distributed txie machines of their 
construction, they reserved the right of property in it, as also 
two-thirds of the net proceeds arising from the gin; the ex- 
pense of working to be joint between the patentees and the 
ginner. Finding, however, a defect in the law under which their 
patent was obtained, they determined to sell the machines, to- 
gether with the right vested in them, for five hundred dollars, 
and for a license to authorize a person to build and work one at 
his own expense four hundred. But finding, as I suppose, that 
the defect of the law was generally understood, and that they 
could get no redress in the courts, they lowered the demand to 
the present rate of two hundred dollars. That they may raise 
it to the former rates is certain, and that they will do it unless 
public interference is had there can be little doubt. I am in- 
formed from other sources that gins have been erected by other 
persons who have not taken Miller and Whitney's gins for a 
model, but which in some small degree resemble it, and in im- 
provement far svirpass it, for it has been asserted that Miller 
and Whitney's gin did not on trial answer the intended purpose. 
The right of these improvements, however, it appears from the 
present act, is merged in the right of the patentees, who, it is 
supposed in the honest calculation, will make by it, in the two 
states, one hundred thousand dollars. Monopolies are odious 
in all countries, but more particularly so in a government like 
ours. The great law meteor. Coke, declared them contrary to 
the common and fundamental law of England. Their tendency 
certainly is to raise the price of the article from the exclusive 
privilege, to render the machine or article worse from the pre- 
vention of competition and improvement, and to impoverish 
poor artificers and planters who are forbidden from making, 
vending, or using it without license from the patentees, or in case 
of doing so, are made liable to penalties in a court of law. The 
Federal Circuit Court docket, it is said, is filled with these ac- 
tions. I do not doubt the power of Congress to grant these ex- 
clusive privileges, for the Constitution has vested them with it, 
but in all cases where they become injurious to the community. 



Beginnings of Missionary Work. 123 

they ought to be suppressed, or the patentees paid a moderate 
compensation for the discovery from the government granting 
the patent. The celebrated Dr. Adam Smith observes that mo- 
nopolies are supported by cruel and oppressive laws. Such is 
the operation at present of the law on this subject. Its weight 
lay on the poor industrious mechanic and planter. Congress, 
however, did not intend it so, for when the first law on this 
subject was passed in February, 1793, a few individuals only 
cultivated cotton, and it was not dreamt of as about to become 
the great staple of the two Southern States — a staple, too, which, 
if properly encouraged, must take the decided lead of any other, 
bread kind excepted, in the United States. The steps proper to 
be taken to remedy this public grievance you will judge of; 
but I should suppose that our sister state of South Carolina, be- 
ing so much intei-ested, would cheerfully join Georgia in any 
proper application to Congress on the subject. I am likewise 
of the opinion that the states of North Carolina and Tennessee 
must be so far interested as to support such application. If you 
think with me, I recommend communication with all of them. 

This is a very interesting paper from several 
points of view. It shows the rapacity with which 
the fortunate inventors of the day preyed upon the 
necessities of the planters. It exhibits also the fa- 
cility with which the strong arm of the govern- 
ment was made tributary to private interests. 
There can be no question that the inventor has a 
property in his own work, but when public inter- 
ests are involved, and the welfare of society can 
be advanced by a liberal reward for the inventions 
of men of genius, it is a cruel wrong for monopo- 
lists to extort unreasonable sums for the use of 
machines in which all the people are interested. 
We are not informed as to the measures adopted 
by the States mentioned by Gov. Jackson, but, as 
he became a Senator in Congress a few months 



124 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

after writing his address, we presume there must 
have been a compromise, one by which the in- 
ventor received a just reward and the people were 
allowed the use of a necessary invention. 
We return to the thread of our history. 
"The Methodist itinerants, having their hearts 
aglow with the pure missionary fire, preached to 
all alike. ' Christ came into the world to die for 
every sinner ' were the broad and liberal words 
emblazoned upon their shields. Everywhere that 
Methodism went, it went in that spirit. It was the 
religion for the rich and the poor, for the black 
and the white, for master and slave; in short, for 
all. It was a noticeable fact that wherever the mas- 
ter obtained this religion, really and truly obtained 
it, he was anxious also for it to be made known 
to those in bondage under him. But sometimes, 
through influences or other irritating causes, there 
were exceptions to this rule. But these were rare. 
And there were many, very many, who, being bit- 
terly opposed to this religion for themselves, were 
still more bitterly against its introduction among 
their servants. 

"But many Christian masters, in the face of 
public opinion, had the courage and the will to 
place in the way of their servants the means of 
their soul's salvation. Noticeably among these 
was Henry Dorsey Gough. Soon after the intro- 
duction of Methodism into this country, he became 
a convert and built ' Perry Hall,' his elegant res- 
idence, twelve miles from the city of Baltimore, 



Beginnings of Missionary Work. 125 

and a commodious chapel, which was designated 
as ' the first Methodist church in America that had 
a bell.' This bell rung every evening, summoning 
his household and his servants to family worship. 
These slaves were nearly one hundred in number. 
They filled the body of the chapel. The circuit 
preachers preached here regularly twice a month, 
and the local preachers every Sunday. Often 
members of the Baltimore bar, the very elite of 
the state of Maryland, beautiful, aristocratic wom- 
en, and gay and handsome men, on a visit to the 
family, assembled in this chapel. Among them 
the slaves of the household always had their place. 
They were never excluded on any occasion. The 
hymns were nearly always raised by these colored 
servants, and often they were called on to pray, to 
which prayers the whites gave the utmost atten- 
tion, many profiting thereby. 

" Gough's own conversion, through hearing his 
slaves praying in their quarters on the plantation, i 
is familiar to many Methodist readers. Even be- 
fore this chapel was built and these noble efforts 
put forth in their behalf by their owner, Metho- 
dism had reached the slaves of this plantation. 
And it came in such a gladdening form that Henry 
Gough, on hearing them singing and praying, 
could not refrain from exclaiming;: ' How much 
more blest are they than I ! ' 

" Other masters followed the example of Henry 
Dorsey Gough in having their servants present 
when the preacher came around on his appoint- 



126 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

merit. Many of these slaves were happily con- 
verted, and died a Christian death. Others lived 
to bear glorious witness of the power of the gospel 
of Jesus Christ to reach and cheer every condition 
of life. 

"In the great revival that spread through Vir- 
ginia in 1775-76, we have constant mention of 
blacks being in the congregations. ^Shadford, 
Lee, and Rankin often had as many as from two 
to three hundred blacks to hear them, filling up 
the doors and windows and vacant spaces about 
the walls. Many affecting scenes occurred among 
them, Rankin gives this note in his account of 
one of these scenes: 'Hundred of negroes were 
there with the tears streaming down their cheeks.' 
Sometimes their cries for mercy, out of the great 
depths of the darkness that ingulfed them, were 
heartrending. And all praise to these noble- 
hearted Methodist itinerants who knew neither 
race nor condition in their efforts of evangeliza- 
tion. Through them many of these poor Africans 
were brought to the redeeming knowledge of life 
through Christ Jesus. 

"One of the most useful, and consequently one 
of the most famous, of the early Methodist preach- 
ers was ' Black Harry.' When Dr. Thomas Coke, 
the newly ordained bishop of the Methodist Episco- 
pal Church, landed in America, he found in As- 
bury's servant an African of remarkable gifts. 
This was Harry Hosier, or as he was more famil- 
iarly known, ' Black Harry.' Harry could neither 



Beginnings of Missionary Woi'k. 127 

read nor write, but he was one of the most power- 
ful exhorters, white or black, then ..on the conti- 
nent, and was taken along by Asbury in his jour- 
neys principally to preach to the blacks. Harry 
was not only gifted, but truly pious, and through 
a long and eventful life accomplished untold good 
to his race. 

"Harry was small in stature, coal black, and 
with eyes of remarkable brilliance and intelli- 
gence. He had a quick mind, a most retentive 
memory, and such an eloquent flow of words, 
which he could soon put into almost faultless Eng- 
lish, that he was pronounced by many 'the great- 
est orator in America.' Nor was this at all unde- 
served. He traveled in turn with Asbury, Coke, 
Whatcoat, Garrettson, Jesse Lee, and other dis- 
tinguished Methodist preachers, to each of whom 
he acted as 'driver,' but 'excelling them all in 
popularity as a preacher,' The bishops were 
proud of Harry, and brought him out on every oc- 
casion they could, not only among the blacks, but 
also in the congregations of the whites. When 
sick or disabled, they would unhesitatingly trust 
their pulpit to Harry, without a single fear of his 
disappointing the people. Asbury was fond of 
openly declaring that the best way he knew to 
obtain a large congregation was to announce that 
' Black Harry ' would preach, as that never failed 
to bring a far more numerous concourse than if 
the announcement had been made for himself. 

"It is related that on one occasion in Wilminof- 



128 The Gospel mnong the Slaves. 

ton, Del., where Methodism was so long unpopu- 
lar, a number of the citizens who had not been in 
the habit of attending the Methodist meetings 
came together out of curiosity to hear Bishop As- 
bury. The chapel was so full that they could not 
effect an entrance, and so were forced to remain 
outside. Here they stood listening as they sup- 
posed to Bishop Asbury, but in reality to ' Black 
Harry.' They were so much pleased that they 
exclaimed in honest praise : ' If all Methodist 
preachers can preach like the bishop, we should 
like to be constant hearers.' Great was their sur- 
prise to learn that it was not the bishop, but his 
servant, ' Black Harry.' Instead of decreasing 
their estimation of the bishop, however, they only 
raised it the higher. 'For,' said they, ' if such be 
the servant, what must the master be? ' 

" It was no wonder that such extraordinary pop- 
ularity should, for a time, have turned poor Har- 
ry's head. Many a stronger one could not have 
withstood the alluring excitement connected with 
it. Harry for years bravely met the temptations 
aroused by his great popularity, but in one evil 
moment fell through a glass of wine temptingly 
proffered him. However, he proved the real stuff 
of which he was made when he showed the moral 
couragfe to cut himself loose from the fetters. He 
withdrew to himself and spent the solitary watches 
of the night under a tree wrestling in prayer until 
victory came. Like a true soldier Harry remained 
faithful to the end. He died about the year 1810, 



Beginnings of Missionary Work. 129 

in Philadelphia, a glorious and triumphant death, 
and was borne to the grave by a great procession 
of white and black admirers, who buried him as a 
hero once overcome but finally victorious. 

" 'Black Harry Hosier' must not be confounded 
with ' Black Harry of St. Eustatius,' who occu- 
pied so enviable a place in the story of the found- 
ing of Methodism in the West India Islands. 

" Two years after the meeting of Coke and 
' Black Harry Hosier ' witnessed the rather ro- 
mantic meeting with the other 'Black Harry;' 
for it was in that year (1786) that Coke, ' driven 
by the winds of heaven' far out of his course, 
found a landing place on one of the many island 
worlds of the West Indies. This led to the found- 
ing of Wesleyan Missions among the blacks of 
these islands, and the putting into active force of 
an agency that contributed directly to the moral 
and mental improvement of the West Indian ne- 
groes. 

" In the same year that witnessed the founding 
of the Wesleyan Missions to the slaves of the West 
India Islands, Freeborn Garrettson, itinerating in 
the bleak wilds of Novo Scotia, found there a httle 
society of colored Methodists. They were refu- 
gee slaves from the United States,' who, without 
the direction and aid of white pastors, had organ- 
ized themselves into a Church. Garrettson formed 
sixty of them into a class, baptized nineteen, and 
administered the Lord's Supper to about forty. 
These African negroes to whom Garrettson came 
9 



130 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

in the leadings of providence were to be the found- 
ers of Methodism in Sierra Leone, and of the 
whole scheme of Methodist evangelization in Af- 
rica.* 

"At the Conference of 1787 the first decisive 
step toward the evangelization of the slaves was 
taken. In the rules for this year we find the fol- 
lowing question and answer recorded: ' What di- 
rection shall we give for the promotion of the spir- 
itual welfare of the colored people?' We conjure 
all our ministers and preachers by the love of God 
and the salvation of souls, and do require them by 
all the authority that is invested in us to leave 
nothing undone for the spiritual benefit and salva- 
tion of them within their respective circuits and 
districts, and for this purpose to embrace this op- 
portunity of inquiring into the state of their souls, 
and to unite in society those who appear to have 
a real desire of fleeing the wrath to come, to meet 
such in class and to exercise the whole Methodist 
Discipline among them.' 

"At this time there were reported 3,893 mem- 
bers in the various societies, extending from New 
England to South Carolina. The Methodist itin- 
erants everywhere endeavored faithfully to follow 
these injunctions, and the result was a gratifjang 
change in the spiritual condition of many a poor 
African throughout the various territories traveled. 
And it is a fact worthy of notice that during the 
succeeding years the numbers in societies were 

* Stevens's " History of Methodism." 



Beginnings of Missionary Work. 131 

nearly doubled. Wherever the banner of Metho- 
dism went upborne by these sturdy hands, it car- 
ried life and light to all; to the master in his lux- 
uriously furnished home, to the poor slave in his 
humble cabin. 

"In that same year (1787) the Cumberland 
Street Methodist Church, in Charleston, S. C, 
was finished, with galleries for the negroes. At 
that time it had a colored membership of sixty-five. 
Other Churches followed this example, until soon 
it was a common sight to see white and black meet- 
ing together as one congregation. 

"A few years after this Asbury, visiting Charles- 
ton, was much surprised at the religious spirit pre- 
vailing among the blacks. Indeed, he expressed 
himself as having stronger hopes of their steady 
growth in religion than of the whites, for Charles- 
ton was at that time such a gay and careless city 
that the good bishop was shocked by the wicked- 
ness abounding on every hand. He writes: ' Re- 
ligion is reviving here among the Africans. These 
are poor ; these are the people we are more imme- 
diately called to preach to.' 

'* Asbury devoted special attention to these ne- 
groes, and while in Charleston assembled them 
every morning at 6 o'clock for instruction and 
prayer. Many touching scenes occurred, which, 
to his zealous heart, were like the fresh, sweet 
oasis in the desert. Others, again, thrilled him 
with the keenest pain, and made him, like John 
Wesley, take unto himself the undying resolve to 



132 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

know neither rest nor cessation of zeal till poor 
Ethiopia lifted up her darkened eyes in glad rec- 
ognition of a Saviour found. 

" They were so grateful to him that they were 
constantly bringing him little presents, which they 
continued to press upon him, despite his generous 
refusal, seeming much hurt at this refusal, which 
they did not understand. One black woman, sixty 
years of age, who supported herself by picking 
oakum — being free, it is supposed — brought him a 
French crown, and insisted on his taking it. ' But 
no,' he declares, ' although I have not three dollars 
to travel two thousand miles, I will not take money 
from the poor.' 

"There was always something peculiarly touch- 
ing in the manner in which these negroes pressed 
their little gifts upon their preacher. It seemed as 
if they could not be grateful enough to him who 
had come to open the darkened cham.bers of their 
soul to the warm, sweet light of the gospel. Revs. 
Samuel Leard, A. M. Chreitzberg, W. W. Mood, 
and other former missionaries to the slaves, in 
writing of their labors in this connection, tell many 
incidents of the slaves pressing up about them 
after the preaching, with little offerings of eggs, 
pretty bird feathers, shells, or whatever else their 
humble resources could produce. There was al- 
ways something delicate and graceful, as well as 
grateful, in their manner of offering these gifts. 
Sometimes it was : ' Here is somethin' for my mis- 
sionary.' But often it was: 'Here is somethin' 



Beginnings of Missionary Work. 133 

for my missionary's lillie [little] girl or boy,' 
whichever the case might be. 

"In the year 1796-97, in the great revival that 
spread from Maine to Tennessee and from Geor- 
gia to Canada, many negroes were converted and 
brought into the folds of the Church. There were 
prayer meetings in private houses and on planta- 
tions, very few of which were not attended by the 
slaves. The quickening spirit extended. White 
and black were alike brought under its influence. 
In the evenings the chapels and the meetings in 
the private houses were crowded, while by day 
the harvest fields and workshops resounded with 
the Methodist shouts and hymns. 

" It was about this time that the first Methodist 
Episcopal Church, exclusively for the negroes, was 
organized in New York City. In 1800 this soci- 
ety built its first house of worship, and called it 
Zion. Though in organization it was separate 
from the Methodist Episcopal Church, with which 
its members had been previously connected, its 
ministers and pastoral oversight were supplied 
from the parent Church for about twenty years.* 

"The revival that broke forth with such power 
in 1796-97 continued to spread. The excitement 
connected with it was greatly increased through 
the breaking out at about the beginning of the 
present century of the yellow fever scourge in 
many parts of the Atlantic coast. The scourge 
spread with frightful rapidity; hundreds, both 
* Methodist Centennial Year Book. 



134 ■^^'^'^ Gospel among the Slaves. 

white and black, being cut off. News came from 
every direction of the great increase in the num- 
bers joining the Methodist societies. More than 
a thousand colored members were added during 
the year 1800, and more than two thousand in 
1801. 

"In 1801 Senator Bassett, writing from Dover, 
Del., says: 'One hundred and thirty, white and 
black, joined the society here yesterday. Many 
more went away sick and sore.' For a week they 
had been holding daily preaching and sunrise 
prayer meetings. The multitude was often esti- 
mated at from seven to eight thousand a day. So 
great did the crowds finally become that three 
preachers had to be employed at once to preach 
to them. On Sunday the sacrament was adminis- 
tered to from twelve to fifteen hundred, black and 
white. Wilson Lee wrote of the glorious work in 
Maryland and Virginia, during which scores of 
slaves were brought to a knowledge of redeeming 
mercy through Christ Jesus. 

" Thomas Ware, on his work in the Philadela- 
phia division, which extended from Wilmington, 
Del., to Seneca Lake, N. Y., spoke of a glori- 
ous revival flame that had swept from length to 
breadth of his territory. This religious excite- 
ment embraced all classes — governors, judges, 
lawyers, statesmen, old and young, rich and poor, 
' including many of the African race.' 

*' Similar reports continued to come from all 
the Churches, north and south, east and west. 



Beginnings of Alissionary Work. 135 

down to 1805. At that time there were 24,316 
colored members in the bounds of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, an increase of over ten thou- 
sand in five years." 

The year 1792-93 was noted for the secession 
of James O'Kelly and his followers because the 
General Conference refused to incorporate a rad- 
ical change in the economy of the Church. It is 
a little remarkable that the colored membership 
should exhibit the close relations of the two races 
in this discussion. When the white membership 
began to decrease, the colored membership like- 
wise decreased, and when the white membership 
recovered its losses the colored membership fol- 
lowed the example. In 1793 the white member- 
ship was 51,416, and this aggregate was not 
reached again until the year 1800, when the fig- 
ures were 51,442. Notwithstanding the great re- 
vivals in 1796, the white membership went down 
to 45,384, and the colored to 11,280, the lowest 
figures since 1790. In 1793 the colored member- 
ship was 16,227, and these figures were not reached 
again until 1802, when a large increase brought 
the colored membership up to 18,659. 



CHAPTER XL 
Mission Work (Continued). 

IN 1800 the South Carolina Conference was com- 
posed of Georgia, South Carolina, and a small 
part of North Carolina, forming but one ecclesi- 
astical district, and presided over by Benjamin 
Blanton. In these boundaries there are now sev- 
eral large and flourishing Annual Conferences, 
which are speaking proofs of the rapid growth 
of Methodism. The Conferences then had 16 
charges, 32 preachers, with a white membership 
of 4,802, and a colored membership of 1,535. 

" In 1801 this Conference was divided into two 
districts: the Georgia, with Stith Mead as presid- 
ing elder; and the South Carolina, with James 
Jenkins as presiding elder. It so continued until 
1830, when Georgia was made a separate Confer- 
ence. 

" In 1808 there appeared in the South Carolina 
Conference a man whose name was destined to 
become identified with the work of Missions to 
the blacks, and whose monument was to bear a 
prouder epitaph than that of the greatest warrior 
or statesman who ever lived. This was William 
Capers, afterward a bishop of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, South, who, when a youth of eight- 
een was sent for his first ministerial work to the 
(136) 



Mission Wo7'k. 137 

Wateree Circuit. This charge was what might be 
termed a broad range, for in order to fill his twen- 
ty-four appointments once in every four weeks the 
young preacher had to ride a distance of three 
hundred miles. He had a membership of 498 
whites, and 124 colored. From the first he took 
a deep interest in the latter, being as care- 
ful and conscientious in his ministerial duties to 
them as to the whites. The superstitious tenden- 
cies of many of them pained him deeply, while on 
the other hand his heart was greatly rejoiced at 
the pure religious spirit and understanding of oth- 
ers. No doubt on this circuit were sown the seeds 
of a purpose that in the heart of the young preach- 
er were to ripen into rich fruition, and bring bless- 
ings to thousands of this race. 

" In 1809 the first special efforts to evangelize 
the slaves were made by the South Carolina Con- 
ference. James H. Mallard was sent as a mission- 
ary to the blacks ' from Ashley to Savannah River,' 
and James E. Glenn as missionary to those ' from 
Santee to Cooper.' There were so many obsta- 
cles in the way, however, that after awhile the 
work was given up. But preaching to the negroes 
in the white charges, and taking them in as mem- 
bers and allowing them all the rights of the Church 
still went on zealously. 

"In this year (1810) the South Carolina Con- 
ference reported 8,202 colored members, an in- 
crease of nearly two thousand from the preceding 
year. Of these, 1,650 were in the city of Charles- 



138 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

ton. Virginia reported a colored membership of 
6,150. It is interesting to note the steady increase 
of the colored membership in the South Carolina 
Conference from 1800 to 1818: from one to three 
thousand yearly. But in the year 1818 occurred 
the noted schism in Charleston by which over five 
thousand negroes withdrew from the Church. 
From 1810, when the colored members numbered 
8,208, to 1817, their numbers increased to 16,789, 
thus in seven years more than doubling their num- 
bers — a ratio of increase of 104.95 per cent. Al- 
though so large a number withdrew in 1818, still 
there began to be a slow but steady increase in 
the numbers of those added up to 1828, when the 
first decisive measures for special missions to the 
slaves were inaugurated by the South Carolina 
Conference, at which time there were nearly nine- 
teen thousand of them in the communion of that 
Conference. 

"In 1 8 10 William Capers, sent to serve the 
charge in Fayetteville, N. C, found there a most 
remarkable colored man, who, in the face of much 
opposition and no little persecution, had accom- 
plished a work that deserves to be kept in undy- 
ing record. This work had been not only to his 
own race, but also to many whites. This man 
was Henry Evans, whose name Methodist histo- 
rians will never let sink into oblivion. But we 
will let Mr. Capers tell the story in his own words : 

The most remarkable man in Fayetteville, N. C, when I 
went there, and who died during mj stay, was a negro by the 



Mission Work. 139 

name of Henry Evans. I say the most remarkable in a view of 
his class, and I call him negro with unfeigned respect. He was 
a negro — that is, he was of that race, without any admixture of 
another. The name simply designates the race, and it is vul- 
gar to regard it with opprobrium. 

I have Icnown and loved and honored not a few negroes in 
my life, who were probably as pure of heart as Evans, or any- 
body else. Such were my old friends Castile Selby and John 
Boquet, of Charleston ; Will Campbell and Harry Merrick, of 
Wilmington; York Cohen, of Savannah; and others I might 
name. These I might call remarkable for their goodness. But 
I use the word in a broader sense for Henry Evans, who was 
confessedly the father of the Methodist Church, white and 
black, in Fayetteville, and the best preacher of his time in that 
quarter; and who was so remarkable as to have become the 
greatest curiosity of the town, insomuch that distinguished vis- 
itors hardly felt that they might pass a Sunday in Fayetteville 
without hearing him preach. 

He eluded no one in private, but sought opportunities to ex- 
plain hiinself; avowed the purity of his intentions, and even 
begged to be subjected to the scrutiny of any surveillance that 
might be thought proper to prove his inoffensiveness; any- 
thing, so that he might be allowed to preach. Happily for him 
and the cause of religion, his honest countenance and earnest 
pleadings were soon powerfully seconded by the fruits of his 
labors. 

One after another began to suspect their servants of attend- 
ing his preaching, not because they were made worse, but won- 
derfully better. The effect on the public morals of the ne- 
groes, too, began to be seen, particularly as regarded their hab- 
its on Sunday and drunkenness. And it was not long before 
the mob was called off by a change in the current of opinion, 
and Evans was allowed to preach in town. 

At that time there was not a single church edifice in Fay- 
etteville, and but one congregation (Presbyterian), who wor- 
shiped in what was called the Statehouse, under which was 
the market; and it was plainly Evans or nobody to preach to 
the negroes. 

Now, too, of the mistresses there were not a few and some of 
the masters who were brought to think that the preaching which 



140 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

had proved so beneficial to their servants might be good for them 
also, and the famous negro preacher had some whites as well 
as blacks to hear him. Among others, and who were the first 
fruits, were mj old friends, Mr. and Mrs. Lumsden, Mrs. Bow- 
en (for manj years Preceptress of the Female Academy), Mrs. 
Malsby, and, I think, Mr. and Mrs. Blake. 

From these the gracious influence spread to others, and a 
meetinghouse was built. It was a frame of wood, weather- 
boarded only on the outside, without plastering, and about fifty 
feet long by thirty wide. Seats, distinctly separated, were at 
first appropriated to the whites near the pulpit. But Evans 
had already become famous, and these seats were insuilicient. 
Indeed, the negroes seemed likely to lose their preacher, negro 
though he was; while the whites, crowded out of their appro- 
priate seats, took possession of those in the rear. 

MeanAvhile Evans had represented to the preacher of Bladen 
Circuit how things were going, and induced him to take his 
meetinghouse into the circuit, and constitute a Church there. 
And now there was no longer room for the negroes in the 
house when Evans preached; and for the accommodation of 
both classes the weatherboards were knocked off and sheds 
were added to the house on either side; the whites occupying 
the whole of the original building and the negroes those sheds 
as a part of the same house. Evans's dwelling was a shed at 
the pulpit end of the church. And that was the identical state 
of the case when I was pastor. 

Often was I in that shed, and much to my edification. I 
have known not many preachers who appeared more convers- 
ant v/ith scripture than Evans, or whose conversation was 
more instructive as to the things of God. He seemed always 
deeply impressed with the responsibility of his position, and 
not even our old friend Castile was more remarkable for his 
humble and deferential deportment toward the whites than 
Evans. Nor would he allow any partiality of his fi'iends to 
induce him to vary in the least degree the line of conduct or 
bearing which he had prescribed to himself in this respect: 
never speaking to a white man but with his hat under his arm, 
never allowing himself to be seated in their houses, and even 
confining himself to the kind and manner of dress proper for 
negroes in general, except his plain black coat for the pulpit. 



Mission Work. 141 

" The whites are kind to me and come to hear me preach," he 
would say, " but I belong to my own sort, and must not spoil 
them." And yet Henry Evans was a Boanerges, and in his 
duty feared not the face of man. 

I have said that he died during my stay in Fayetteville this 
year (1810). The death of such a man could not but be tri- 
umphant, and his was distinguishingly so. I did not witness it, 
but was with him before he died, and as he appeared to me tri- 
umph should express but partially the character of his feelings, 
as the word imports exultation at victory, or at most the vic- 
tory and exultation together. It seemed to me as if the victory 
he had won was no longer an object, but rather as if his spirit, 
past the contemplation of triumph on earth, were already in 
communion with heaven. Yet his last breath was drawn in 
the act of pronouncing i Corinthians xv. 57: "Thanks be to 
God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus 
Christ." 

It was my practice to hold a m-eeting with the blacks in the 
church directly after morning preaching every Sunday. And 
on the Sunday before his death, during this meeting, the little 
door between his humble shed and the chancel where I stood 
was opened and the dying man entered for a last farewell to his 
people. He was almost too feeble to stand at all, but, support- 
ing himself by the railing of the chancel, he said: " I have come 
to say my last to you. It is this: None but Christ. Three 
times I have had my life in jeopardy for preaching the gospel 
to you. Three times I have broken the ice on the edge of the 
water and swam across the Cape Fear to preach the gospel to 
you. And now, if in my last hour I could trust to that, or to 
anything else but Christ crucified, for my salvation, all should 
be lost, and my soul perish forever." A noble testimony ! wor- 
thy not of Evans only, but of St. Paul. His funeral at the 
church was attended by a greater concourse of persons than 
had been seen on any funeral occasion before. The whole 
community appeared to mourn his death, and the universal 
feeling seemed to be that in honoring the memory of Henry 
Evans we were paying a tribute to virtue and religion. He 
was buried under the chancel of the church of which he had 
been in so remarkable a manner the founder. 



142 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

"It is perhaps not out of place at this point to 
make mention of the labors of Rev. William Mer- 
edith, who, as early as 1784, came to Wilmington, 
N. C, and began to preach there the doctrines of 
Methodism. His first congregations were com- 
posed solely of blacks, and he found a noble co- 
laborer in Rev. Jesse Jennett, or ' Father Jennett,' 
as he was known. He was persecuted on all 
sides, and finally thrown into prison; but through 
persecutions and fiery trials he went on to victory. 
His church was burned; the voluntary contribu- 
tions of humble but faithful negroes built another. 
That was the beginning of Methodism in Wilming- 
ton. Thus we see that in two of the proudest 
cities of the Old North State, Methodism, so great 
a power now, was first implanted among their 
humble slave population. 

*' Persecutions against those who undertook to 
preach to the negroes were now rife in every di- 
rection. The abolition sentiment had taken pos- 
session of the machinery of the Church, and had 
brought into existence the bitterest feelings on 
both sides. The Methodist preachers were every- 
where looked upon as sheep in wolves' clothing, 
were treated accordingly, and in many instances 
roughly handled. In Charleston in 1801 occurred 
the first mob raised on the slavery question, when 
Rev. George Dougherty, as pure and good a man 
as ever lived, was dragged to a pump and nearly 
drowned with the water, for no other offense than 
that of being a Methodist preacher and preaching 



Mission Work. 143 

to the negroes and the whites. The Charleston 
congregations, too, came in for much of this 
abuse, not only because they were of the despised 
sect known as ' Methodists,' but because they al- 
lowed negroes in the galleries of their churches. 

"About this time that pure and fearless man of 
God, the Rev. Samuel Dunwoody, was preaching 
to the negroes in the swamps around Charleston, 
by the light of the moon, for fear of attracting the 
attention of the lawless class of whites. Here he 
many times administered the holy sacrament of the 
Church as though they were ' things the da3dight 
might not look upon.' He is said to have re- 
mained all night in the woods at the very season 
when the dread pestilence was abroad, baptizing 
and administering the Lord's Supper to a large 
concoui'se of blacks. Fully three hundred were 
baptized on this one night." 

No apology can or ought to be made for the 
miscreants who resorted to violence in their treat- 
ment of the Methodist preachers, not because they 
cared for the slaves or their masters, but because 
they loved deeds of violence. But the truth of 
history requires it to be stated that the Methodist 
Episcopal Church had assumed the position of an 
abolitionist society. At the very beginning of our 
organization the subject of slavery was recognized 
as a fit subject for Church legislation, and the at- 
tempt was made to force slaveholders to emanci- 
pate their slaves or retire from the Church. The 
attempt to brand slaveholding as a crime, an of- 



144 '^^^ Gospel among the Slaves. 

fense that would exclude the offender from the 
kingdom of heaven failed, but it was not for lack 
of diligent efforts on the part of Coke and Asbury, 
or the majority of the traveling preachers. After 
reading the character given to the free negroes by 
statesmen and politicians, no one can wonder at 
the opposition offered to emancipation by the peo- 
ple of the South. 

It was precisely the question best calculated to 
arouse the most intense feelings of bitterness 
among the holders of slaves and all who believed 
that the measure would fill the land with lazy and 
idle negroes, whose chief subsistence would come 
from the barns and smokehouses of the industri- 
ous whites. 

Dr. Coke was indicted as an incendiary in Vir- 
ginia, and no doubt, from his point of view, there 
was no disgrace in the fact. Yet the calm, un- 
prejudiced mind cannot look at the subject from 
that point of view. He was interfering with a 
civil institution, lawfully established, and a stran- 
ger in England striving to overthrow monarchy 
was not one whit more guilty of impertinent inter- 
ference with the laws of a country than Dr. Coke 
was in his diatribes against slavery. 

The prudent observation of Bishop Asbury 
caused him to abate his zeal, and finally to 
cease all public effort in this behalf, for he saw 
how disastrously all of his public movements had 
been. But it was difficult to convince the preach- 
ers that they were not called to destroy the institu- 



Mission Work. 145 

tion of slavery. One of the greatest provocations 
offered to the slaveholders of the South was an ad- 
dress issued by the General Conference of 1800, 
and published, probably, by every newspaper in 
the South. This address confirmed many thou- 
sands of the people in the belief that all itinerant 
Methodist preachers were abolition emissaries 
and, as a consequence, promoters of insurrection 
and rebellion among the negroes. 

We give this address as we find it in the Louis- 
ville Gazette^ & newspaper published in Louisville, 
Ga., in October, 1800: 

T/ie Address of the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal 

Church to All Their Brethren and Friends in the United States. 

We, the members of the General Conference of the Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church, beg leave to address you with earnest- 
ness on a subject of the first importance. 

We have long lamented the great national evil of negro slav- 
ery which has existed for so many years, and does exist in many 
of these United States. We have considered it as repugnant to 
the inalienable rights of mankind and to the very essence of 
civil liberty, but more especially to the spirit of the Christian 
religion. 

For inconsistent as is the conduct of this otherwise free, this 
independent nation, in respect to the slavery of the negroes, 
when considered in a civil and political view, it is still more so 
when examined in the light of the gospel. For the whole spirit 
of the New Testament militates in the strongest manner against 
the practice of slavery, and the influence of the gospel wher- 
ever it has long prevailed (except in many of these United States) 
has utterly abolished that most criminal part of slavery, the 
possessing and using the bodies of men by the arbitrary will, 
and with almost uncontrollable power. 

The small number of adventurers from Europe who visit the 
West Indies for the sole purpose of amassing fortunes are hard- 
ly worth our notice, any farther than their influence reaches for 
10 



146 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

the enslaving and desti-ojing of the human race. But that so 
large a proportion of the inhabitants of this country, who so 
truly boast of the liberty they enjoy, and are so justly jealous of 
that inestimable blessing, should continue to deprive of every 
trace of liberty so many of their fellow -creatures equally capa- 
ble with themselves of every social blessing and of eternal hap- 
piness is an inconsistency which is scarcely to be paralleled in 
the history of mankind. 

Influenced by these views and feelings, we have for many 
years restricted ourselves by the strongest regjulations from 
partaking of the " accvirsed thing," and have also laid some 
very mild and tender restrictions on our Society at large. But 
at this General Conference we wished, if possible, to give a 
blow at the root of this enormous evil. For this purpose we 
naturally weighed every regulation which could be adopted 
■within our own society. All seemed to be insufficient. We 
therefore determined at least to rouse up all our influence in 
order to hasten to the utmost of our power the universal extir- 
pation of this crying sin. To this end we passed the following 
resolution: 

" That the Annual Conferences be directed to draw up ad- 
dresses for the gradual emancipation of the slaves to the legis- 
latures of the states in which no general laws have been passed 
for that purpose ; that these addresses urge in the most respect- 
ful but pointed manner the necessity of a law for the gradual 
emancipation of the slaves; that proper committees be appoint- 
ed out of the most respectable of our friends for the conducting 
of the business; and that the president elders, elders, deacons, 
and traveling preachers do secure as many proper signatures 
as possible to the address, and give all the assistance in their 
power in evei"y respect to aid the committees, and to further 
this blessed undertaking. And that this be continued from 
year to year till the desired end be fully accomplished." 

What now remains, dear brethren, but that you coincide 
with us in this great undertaking, for the sake of God, his 
Chui-ch, and his holy cause, for the sake of your country, and 
for the sake of the miserable and oppressed. Give your signa- 
tures to the addresses; hand them for signatures to all your ac- 
quaintances and all the friends of liberty; urge the justice, the 
ability, the necessity of the measure; persevere in this blessed 



Mission Work. 147 

work, and the Lord, we are persuaded, will finally crown jour 
endeavors with the wished for success. O what a glorious 
country would be ours if equal liberty were everywhere estab- 
lished, and equal liberty everywhere enjoyed! 

We are not ignorant that several of the Legislatures of these 
states have most generously stepped forth in the cause of liber- 
ty and passed laws for the emancipation of the slaves. But 
many of the members of our society, even in these states, may 
be highly serviceable to this great cause by using their influ- 
ence, by writing or otherwise, with their friends in other states, 
whether those friends be Methodists or not. 

Come then, brethren, let us join hand and heart together in 
this important enterprise. God is with us, and will, we doubt 
not, accompany with his blessing all our labors of love. 

We could write to you a volume on the present subject, but 
we know that in general you have ah-eady weighed it, and we 
have great confidence that your utmost assistance will not be 
wanting, and we promise to aid you with zeal and diligence. 

That our gracious God may bless you with all the riches of 
his grace, and that we may all meet where perfect liberty and 
perfect love shall eternally reign is the ardent prayer of your 
affectionate brethren. 

Signed in behalf and by order of the Genera! Conference. 
Thomas Coke, -v 

Francis Asbury, C Bishops. 
Richard Whatcoat. ) 

EzEKiEL Cooper, ■\ 

William McKendree, C The Committee. 

Jesse Lee. ) 

The publication of such a pragmatic document 
as the foregoing was well calculated to destroy the 
Methodist Church in the South. At a later period 
it would have produced such a result. But the 
fact was that the antislavery sentiment was stron- 
ger at the South before the Methodist Church be- 
gan to meddle with the subject than it was at any 
subsequent time. The effect of this "address" 



148 



The Gospel among the Slaves. 



was injurious to the preachers, to Methodism, and 
to the slaves themselves. 

It caused every Methodist preacher to be re- 
garded with suspicion, as an abolitionist, and the 
agent of an abolition propaganda. Indiscreet men, 
carrying out the resolutions of the Conference, 
brought upon themselves the deserved condemna- 
tion of the public, and this censure naturally ex- 
pressed itself in violence by the lawless elements 
of society. 

We have in this document a reason for the riot- 
ous conduct of many of these persons who mal- 
treated Methodist preachers in the early part of 
the century. The English " tough " thought he 
was showing zeal for " the Church " when he 
mobbed Mr. Wesley and his preachers. The 
Southern "tough" was showing his zeal for the 
Southern cause when he helped to "duck" a 
Methodist preacher who could be nothing but an 
abolitionist in disguise. 

Colored Members in the Methodist Episcopal Church 
Reported in the Minutes for the years lySd to 182^. 



Year. Members. 



1786. 
1787. 
1788. 
1789. 
1790. 
1 791. 
1793. 



. 1 ,890 
. 3,893 
. 6,545 
. 8,243 
,11,682 
,12,884 
.13,871 



1793 16,227 

1794 13,814 

1795 12,170 

1796 11,280 



Year. Members. 

1797 12,218 

179S 12,30; 

1799 12,236 

1800 13,4 =;2 

1801 15,688 

1803 18,659 

1803 22,453 

1804 23,531 

1805 24,316 

1806 27,257 

1807 29,863 



Year. Members, 

1808 30,308 

1809 31,884 

181O 34,724 

1811 35,732 

181 2 38,505 

1813 42,859 

1814 42,431 

1815 43,187 

1816 42,304 

1817 43,4" 

1818 39,150 



Year. Members. 

1819 39,174 

1820 38,753 

1821 42,059 

1822 44,377 

1823 44,792 

1834 48,040 

1835 49,435 

1826 51,084 

1827 53,542 

1828 59,056 

1829 62,814 



CHAPTER XII. 
The Gospel on the Plantation. 

THE regular organization of missionary forces 
to operate among the negroes on the planta- 
tions is by some attributed to an overseer, and 
by others to the Hon. Charles C. Pinckney. Like 
many other important ideas, it is doubtless true 
that the propriety and expediency of such a move- 
ment had been suggested to many minds before 
any action was taken. The prime movers in the 
enterprise deserve the thanks of mankind, and it 
is pleasing to be able to record the name of a 
great statesman, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, 
among the benefactors of the negro race. 

But without detracting anything from the merits 
of other persons, the Rev. George W. Moore gives 
the honor to Mrs. Bearfield, a pious lady who, in 
1828, made earnest efforts to have the gospel 
preached on the plantation of Mr. Charles Baring, 
on Pon Pon, in South Carolina. It is certain that 
regular Missions to the negroes began in the South 
Carolina Conference, and the year 1829 is given 
as the date at which the movement was inaugu- 
rated. 

We have already spoken of the prejudices en- 
tertained by the planters against Methodist preach- 
ers as a class. The revolutionary attempts of the 

(149) 



150 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

early Conferences and their constant attacks made 
upon the institution of slavery by zealous but in- 
discreet men had created a feeling that required 
almost a whole generation of time to overcome. 
Where the negroes were mingled with the mem- 
bers of the white family, worshiping under the 
same roof and taught by the same minister, it was 
easy enough to break down this prejudice. But 
on the large plantations of the seaboard country 
in South Carolina and Georgia, where the only 
white persons were the overseer and his family, it 
was quite another matter. Who could assure the 
owner that under the pretense of preaching the 
gospel to his negroes the itinerant preacher, a 
stranger oftentimes, would not instill principles of 
rebellion in the minds of the slaves? Did not the 
General Conference of 1800 declare that the whole 
tenor of the New Testament was hostile to slav- 
ery? Did not that Conference identify emancipa- 
tion with the gospel, and did they not declare per- 
petual hostility to a lawful institution, recognized 
by the state and the Constitution of the United 
States? 

It seems to us quite natural that men of the 
world, generally careless about the welfare of 
their own souls, should care but little for the 
religious instruction of their slaves. If it could 
be made plain to them that the gospel, instead of 
becoming a means of creating trouble and strife, 
was really the best instrument to preserve peace 
and good conduct among the negroes, there would 



The Gospel on the Plantation. 151 

have been no hesitation whatever. In point of fact 
it w^as this conviction that ultimately opened the 
way for the gospel on the large plantations. But 
this result came only after the Methodist preachers 
had repudiated the action of 1800, and this was 
brought about by exchanging the fanaticism of the 
General Conference for the wise, conservative, and 
Christlike opinions and example of St. Paul. So 
far from breathing hostility to any civil institution, 
the spirit and letter of the New Testament com- 
manded obedience to king, archon, or president, 
whatever the chief rulers of a nation might be, and 
so far from declaring one form of civil government 
preferable to another, the grievous national bond- 
age of the Jews to the Romans was never alluded 
to in the way of censure by either our Saviour or 
his apostles. 

Owners of large plantations, coming to the 
knowledge of this change in the dispositions of 
the Methodist preachers, and finding many of 
them following the example of the illustrious bish- 
op, then Mr. Capers, and seeing the good effects 
produced by the preaching to the negroes on the 
plantations of their neighbors, ultimateh^ gave their 
consent to permit their slaves to hear the gospel 
from the lips of capable white missionaries. 

It may be proper at this point to observe that al- 
most every Methodist preacher, in town or city, 
became a special missionary to the negroes prior 
to 1865. It was a service courted by many, for 
there was a peculiar unction thaty4escended upon 



152 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

the preacher in the presence of these sable chil- 
dren of Africa. While they were not good judges 
of rhetoric, they were excellent judges of good 
preaching, and by their prayers and that peculiar 
magnetism which many have felt and none can ex- 
plain the power of the Holy Ghost seemed often 
present in the preacher and the hearer. That 
sense of constraint which the minister feels when 
he stands in the view of hundreds of critical eyes 
was unknown in the pulpit of a colored Church. 
No learned exposition of difficult texts was needed. 
No exhibition of the acquirements of the preacher 
was provoked in that presence. He felt himself 
face to face with immortal souls, and indifferent 
to all things belonging to " delivery" and "elo- 
cution." 

"God bless all the benefit sharer s^^'' said a ne- 
gro preacher in our hearing; and who will say 
that he did not make a happy blunder and give a 
profoundly accurate definition of the word " ben- 
eficiaries " when he made it "benefit sharers?" 
It was this arrowlike directness, flying straight to 
the mark, and the simple, unadorned language of 
the needy soul feeling its wants — these were the 
conditions that made preaching to the negroes a 
blessing to every city pastor. The dry, decorous, 
and stiff congregations that too often looked like 
wax figures assembled in Church, and were just 
as often destitute of any visible evidence of inter- 
est in the preacher and his message — these were 
terrors to many city pastors, and from this Sahara 



The Gospel on the Plantation. 153 

of form and show they were glad to escape and re- 
ceive a baptism from above in delivering the gos- 
pel message to appreciative hearers in a negro 
congregation. The chasm opened in 1865 and 
after by the malignant efforts of messengers of 
Satan who sowed the seed of mistrust and enmity 
in the minds of the negroes against the whites, 
against the preachers especially, has not been en- 
tirely closed at this day, but time will accomplish 
the task, and then the preachers who have never 
known this blessedness in the pulpit may have op- 
portunities to understand what otherwise may seem 
inexplicable to them. 

The condition of the negro slave had greatly 
improved in 1830, when South Carolina first es- 
tablished her Missions on the plantations. The 
African slave trade had legally expired in 1808, 
and the moral sentiment of the people of the South 
condemned it with great severity. There were 
many New England ships ready to be engaged in 
the traffic as of yore, and their owners were not 
averse to measuring arms with the feeble coast 
guard of the Federal Government. In nearly two 
thousand miles of coast line, it was simply impos- 
sible to prevent the landing of slave ships if the 
people on shore gave the necessary encourage- 
ment. But this stimulus was wanting." The con- 
sequence was that the negroes on the rice and 
cotton plantations were now natives of the soil, 
for the most part. Here and there a " Guinea ne- 
gro " could be found, but his existence was proof 



154 '^^^^ Gospel among the Slaves. 

of the humane treatment of his master. After 
twenty-two years of service, the slave captured at 
twenty-five or thirty becomes a source of expense, 
not of profit to his master. There were many of 
these doubtless, but they had learned English, 
after a fashion, and their own dialect was suffi- 
cient for their intellectual wants. The preachers 
who devoted their time and study to the attain- 
ment of a simple style and homely manner of ad- 
dress became useful in a high degree. 

Among these effective preachers was the Rev. 
George W. Moore, of South Carolina. 

" To Mr. Moore belongs the honor of having 
been the first plantation missionary. It is true he 
was not regularly appointed by the Conference, 
but this did not deter him from preaching to these 
darkened souls with all the zeal and faithfulness 
of a heart that counted no labor too exacting, no 
service too lowly in its Master's cause. In these 
noble efforts Mr. Moore was warmly seconded and 
aided by his colaborer on the circuit, the Rev. 
Samuel W. Capers. 

" Mr. Charles Baring was so much pleased with 
the results of Mr. Moore's preaching to his slaves 
that he joined with Col. Lewis Morris, a neighbor- 
ing planter, in making application to the South 
Carolina Conference for a missionary to be regu- 
larly sent to preach to their people. ' In the au- 
tumn of the same year,' says Dr. Shipp in his 
"History of Methodism in South Carolina," 'the 
Hon. Charles C. Pinckney, feeling a deep interest 



The Gosfel on the Plantation. 155 

in the religious welfare of the colored people, in- 
voked the aid of Rev. William Capers, Superin- 
tendent of Missions, in procuring the services of a 
Methodist exhorter in the relation of overseer for 
his plantation on Santee River. His attention was 
called to the object and aim of the Missionary So- 
ciety, and he therefore made application also for a 
missionary.' 

"As the result of these requests, the South Car- 
olina Conference, in 1829, sent out two missiona- 
ries specially to the slaves — the Revs. John Hon- 
our and John H. Massey. The former was sent 
as missionary to the slaves on the plantations south 
of the Ashley River, and the latter to those south 
of the Santee. The Rev. William Capers was 
made superintendent of these missions. A mel- 
ancholy incident marked their opening. The Rev. 
John Honour, although a native of the low coun- 
try, and acclimated, as it was supposed, contracted 
the fever from exposure in the swamps, was taken 
seriously ill on the nth of September, and died 
the week following, on September 19, 1829. 

"Mr. Honour was a noble, zealous, Christian 
minister, not ashamed of the lowly work to which 
he had been called, but joyfully resigning even life 
itself in the cause. Through the kindness of Rev. 
William W. Mood, of Ridgeway, S. C, we have 
been permitted to make use of the following extracts 
from a letter written to Mr. Mood by Mr. John L. 
Honour, of Charleston, S. C, the grandson of 
Rev. John Honour: 



156 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

A bi-ief history of my grandfather can easily be furnished 
you, as a few months prior to the decease of my beloved father 
he wrote a sketch of the Honour family " for the benefit of its 
members who may come after me." Of his own father, the 
Rev. John Honour in question, he writes thus: "John, the sec- 
ond son of Dt. Thomas Honour, was born in St. Andrew's Par- 
ish, South Carolina, July 22, 1770. In early boyhood, having 
lost his father, he left Charleston in a vessel trading between 
that port and the West Indies on a trip to Havana. On the re- 
turn passage the vessel foundered at sea, and the- persons on 
board took to the boats and were for three days without food or 
water, when they fell in with a vessel bound for Philadelphia, 
which took them on board and carried them to that city, whence 
John made his Avay home to Charleston. Not wishing any fur- 
ther acquaintance with the sea, he entered into business, in 
which he continued for many years. In the meantime, he and 
his wife had become members of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, and he became a local preacher, preaching everj' Sun- 
day in the city and surrounding country. At length he deter- 
mined to give up business and devote himself entirely to the 
work of the ministry, and was received into the South Carolina 
Conference. About the year 1829 the Conference established a 
mission to the blacks in the southern portion of the state, in- 
cluding the Sea Islands, and the Rev, John Honour was ap- 
pointed first missionary. In this cause he successfully labored 
until the fall of 1829, when he contracted malarial fever, on the 
Combahee, of which he died vSeptember 19, 1829." 

"The remains of the Rev. John Honour, first 
missionary to the slaves, were interred in the cem- 
etery of Trinity Church, Hazel Street, Charleston, 
S. C. In the great conflagration of 1838, in which 
the church (a frame one) was burned, the tomb- 
stone was almost totally destroyed from the heat 
of the burning church. Mr. Honour, the grand- 
son, writes that only a few fragments of the first 
monument remain. In this way the original in- 
scription has been lost. The present monument 



The Gosfel on the Plantation. 157 

was erected by the missionary's son, and bears 
the simple inscription: 

Filial to Parental Love. 

In Memory of 

Rev. John Honour, 

born july 22, 177o, 

died september i9, 1829. 

"Although this first mission to the slaves had 
such a deplorable beginning, it continued to fl^our- 
ish as a tree that heaven watereth. One faithful 
soldier had died, but there were others ready and 
willing to take his place. The work went forward 
with healthy activity. Those noble-hearted men 
who were first in the movement to have the gospel 
preached to their people ever remained firm and 
helpful friends of the missionaries, giving liberally 
of their substance in support of the work. Dur- 
ing the first year of these missions the faithful 
laborers gathered four hundred and seventeen 
Church members among these hitherto neglected 
blacks. 

"The Rev. George W. Moore was deemed a 
fitting successor of the faithful and lamented 
Honour. In 1830 he was sent as missionary to 
the slaves on Pon Pon and Combahee, while Rev. 
John W. Massey was returned to those on the 
Santee. In the meantime another mission to the 
blacks had been established on the Savannah and 
Broad Rivers, and the Rev. James Dannelly sent 
to serve it. In the second year — that is, at the end 



158 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

of 1830 — these faithful missionaries nearly trebled 
the work of the first year, returning a colored 
membership on these Missions of 1,077. 

" The call for means to keep up these Missions 
was most urgent. Back of this was but a meagerly 
filled treasure-chest, for during the year 1830 the to- 
tal amount collected by the Conference for Missions 
was only $261.* But to the credit of this grand 
old Conference be it said that she never once fell 
short of her duty because of a depleted treasury. 

" In the Minutes of the South Carolina Confer- 
ence of 1830, the same year in which the Georgia 
Conference was set off, we find record of the es- 
tablishment of another mission on the Little River, 
in the Athens (Ga.) District. 

"In 1831 there were four distinct missions to 
the slaves in the bounds of the South Carolina 
and Georgia Conferences — three in the former 
and one in the latter. The total number of blacks 
taken into the Church on these missions was 
1,242, an increase of 165. In the meantime ac- 
tive and zealous souls had been at work, and the 
amount raised this year for missions in the South 
Carolina Conference alone more than trebled that 
of the previous year, being $727.67. What amount 
was given by the Georgia Conference for the sup- 
port of her one mission the writer has been un- 
able to find. 

" The largest of these four missions was that on 
Combahee and Pon Pon, which had a black mem- 

* Statistics given in 1856 bj Rev. V/illiam M. Wightman. 



The Gospel on the Plantation. 159 

bership of nearly 700. In addition to this there 
were upward of one hundred little negroes regular- 
ly receiving the benefits of a plan of catechetical 
instruction adopted by the Conference that year. 

"In this year (1831) the Rev. Allen Turner, 
writing from the Little River Mission in Georgia, 
says that this mission grew out of a great revival 
among the whites and blacks that began at the 
Fountain camp meeting held near^Warrenton. 

"At the anniversary of the South Carolina Con- 
ference Missionary Society, held January 28, 1832, 
the cause of Missions to the slaves was declared 
* one of wide and growing interest,' and that the 
success which had marked the enterprise proved 
that God had sanctioned it, and offered ' cheering 
argument in favor of its ultimate triumph, as well 
as a strong inducement for increased exertion.' 
This shows well the temper and zeal of the men 
who had this work in hand. No wonder it flour- 
ished and increased despite the slanders and op- 
position of its enemies. The closing words of this 
address are worthy of enduring record: 'Thus, 
after years of delay on our part, the debt of jus- 
tice due to Africa's sons has begun to be consid- 
ered. Guided by experience and cheered by suc- 
cess, we come to bind ourselves afresh to the holy 
work, and to renew the solemn obligation which 
the enterprise of negro salvation and instruction 
imposes on us. Into this long-neglected field of 
danger, reproach, and toil we again go forth bear- 
ing the precious seed of salvation; and to the pro- 



i6o The Gospel among the Slaves. 

tection of the God of Missions our cause is confi- 
dently and devotedly commended-' 

"In 1832 we find the return made of four dis- 
tinct colored missions from the Georgia Confer- 
ence, which shows that this Conference had start- 
ed out with all the zeal of the mother Conference. 
Indeed, this year, she not only ran abreast, but 
ahead, reporting four missions to two in the South 
Carolina Conference. This looks a little strange 
at first, but is easily accounted for by the transfer 
of a part of the territory of the South Carolina 
Conference, including one of its missions, to the 
Georgia Conference. This was the Little River 
Mission which, although it was established in 
Georgia, was nevertheless at first under the con- 
trol of the South Carolina Conference. 

"The other three missions in Georgia at this 
date were those on Broad River in the Athens 
District, the one near Macon, and the one on Su- 
gar Creek, in the Milledgeville District. The 
names of the missionaries serving them were : 
Robert G. Edwards, Whitman C. Hill, and John 
Collinsworth — all names honored as pioneers in 
Georgia Methodism. John Collinsworth was es- 
pecially noted for the access he had to the hearts 
of the slaves and the confidence of their masters. 
He was then a man in the prime of life. He died 
September 4, 1834, while stationed at Eatonton, 
Ga. 

" The two missions in the South Carolina Con- 
ference were the Pon Pon and Combahee Mission, 



The Gosfel on the Plantation. i6i 

and the one on the Santee River. Rev. George 
W. Moore was the missionary to the former, with 
Rev. John R. Coburn his colaborer, while Rev. 
Christian G. Hill had charge of the latter. The 
number of members returned on these two mis- 
sions alone was 15395- Another cause of the de- 
crease in the number of missions in the South 
Carolina Conference was that during the year 
1831 the negroes served on the Savannah River 
Mission had been put into the regular work of the 
circuit. This mission must not be confounded 
with that of the Savannah Back River Mission es- 
tablished by the Georgia Conference in 1834. 

"In 1832 we find the Tennessee Conference fol- 
lowing the example of the Georgia and South Car- 
olina Conferences and establishing two missions to 
the blacks. But though established by this Con- 
ference, these missions lay in the bounds of an- 
other state — the one in Madison and Limestone 
Counties, and the other in Franklin and Lawrence 
Counties, Alabama. The two missionaries sent to 
serve these missions were Thomas M. King and 
Gilbert D. Taylor. This makes eight slave mis- 
sions in operation for the year 1832. 

"The reports from these missions, with but 
slight exception, were encouraging. The good 
work had spread; the minds and hearts of the 
planters had been opened to the marked benefit 
of the system, and in several instances they were 
beginning to contribute liberally toward the main- 
tenance of the missionaries. 
11 



i62 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

" The Rev. George W. Moore, writing from the 
Pon Pon and Combahee Missions, in South Caro- 
lina, in February, 1832, said: 'At no time has 
there been more fixed attention to the word than 
at present. If we are to decide on its advantages 
from the statements of those who are best ac- 
quainted with the colored people, the master and 
overseer, it is their decided conviction that much 
good has been done.' 

" On the Santee Mission, same Conference, 
where that good and true man. Christian G. Hill, 
was in charge, matters were also in a highly pros- 
perous condition. During one quarter he received 
on trial eighty-six adults and had the accession of 
three large plantations to the mission. He had, 
too, a class of nearly two hundred children under 
catechetical instruction. 

" In January, 1832, the Georgia Conference, in 
session at Augusta, passed a resolution to |he ef- 
fect ' that in the opinion of the Conference it was 
the duty of the missionary to the slaves and the 
colored people within its bounds to consider them 
his special charge, to collect them into societies 
and divide them into classes wherever it is practi- 
cable ; that he should carefully instruct them in 
the doctrines of Christianity and bring them under 
the discipline of the Church, as in the case of all 
other members.' 

" On the missions within the bounds of this 
Conference everything seemed to be in harmoni- 
ous working order. Near Macon was at this time 



The Gospel on the Plantation. 163 

one of the most prosperous missions. This mis- 
sion had been organized by the Rev, Whitman C. 
Hill. He was succeeded in 1832 by Rev. Jesse 
Sinclair. This mission embraced a tract of thir- 
ty-five miles in length and about twenty in breadth. 
It lay west of Macon, in the counties of Bibb, Mon- 
roe, and Upson. By the summer of 1832 Mr, Sin- 
clair reported 12 regular preaching places, nearly 
500 members in full connection, and with nearly 
100 on probation. Among many things of inter- 
est, he wrote of a quarterly meeting just held in 
which many of the slaves spoke at love feast ' calm- 
ly and rationally on the goodness of God in their 
awakening: and conversion.' Their faces shone 
with a new light, the tears streamed down their 
cheeks. Many of the owners of these slaves were 
present and joined with them in the praise of God, 
weeping as they wept and rejoicing as they re- 
joiced. 

" During the year 1832 (report made at the be- 
ginning of the year of 1833) the South Carolina 
Conference appropriated $1,519.45 to Missions, 
and the Georgia Conference $856.25, the greater 
part of which went undoubtedly to the keeping up 
of their slave missions. The Rev. Mr. Chreitz- 
berg, the able statistician of the South Carolina 
Conference, writing in reply to the author's in- 
quiry, says : ' You can safely set down fully two- 
thirds of the amount from each year's Mission re- 
port of the South Carolina Conference as appro- 
priated to slave missions.' We suppose this will 



164 The Gosfel among the Slaves. 

hold good of other Conferences having these mis- 
sions in their bounds. It is certainly not an over- 
estimate, as for several years after the establish- 
ment of slave missions the total amounts collected 
for Missions by the South Carolina Conference 
were appropriated, with but little reservation, to 
the keeping up of its missionaries m the slave mis- 
sion fields. 

"What amount the Tennessee Conference con- 
tributed to the support of its two missions in Ala- 
bama, during 1832, we have been unable to learn. 
The total colored membership within the bounds 
of these missions at the close of the year 1832 was 
something over 2,500, and the three Conferences 
reporting special missions to the slaves had a col- 
ored membership of nearly 26,000. 

"Now it must not be supposed that because no 
special missions to the blacks had at this time been 
established in the other Conferences they were neg- 
lectful of this work. Not so; there was not at 
this date a single Conference within the Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church that had not, in some way 
or other, made provision for the spiritual enlight- 
enment of the blacks. A large part of this mission 
work was done by the regular ministry. There 
was not a circuit of any size that did not have its 
colored charge, or its colored membership. Thus 
the Kentucky Conference, which, up to 1838, had 
established but one mission to the people of color 
(that in Lexington and vicinity) had a colored 
membership of 5,854. So, too, of the Holston 



The Gospel on the Plafitation. 165 

and Virginia Conferences which, for several years 
later, did not establish separate and distinct mis- 
sions for the blacks; the former had a colored 
membership of 1,820, and the latter 2,951. What 
was true of these Conferences was also true of the 
others, to a greater or less extent. 

"The year 1833 opened with five missions in 
the Georgia Conference, ten in the South Caro- 
lina, and one in the Tennessee — sixteen in all, a 
wonderful increase over the previous year. Rec- 
ord is also given of the establishment of a mission 
partly to the whites and partly to the blacks, by 
the Baltimore Conference on Mattawoman Creek; 
but as no further account of it is obtainable from 
the Minutes, no estimate of it can be given. The 
two missions under the control of the Tennessee 
Conference in Alabama were now placed in the 
work of the circuits, and no separate account of 
them is available. 

"On June 5, 1833, the Rev. A. Hamill, presid- 
ing elder of the Savannah District, reported the 
mission to slaves in Burke County, Georgia, un- 
der the management of the Rev. L. C. Peck, in a 
highly prosperous condition. There were twenty- 
six appointments in all, with a population of nearly 
two thousand slaves enjoying the preaching of the 
gospel. * The planters,' wrote Mr. Hamill, ' are 
generaly inclined to favor the introduction of 
Christianity among their slaves.' 

" The Savannah River Mission, under the 
charge of the Rev. Samuel J. Bryan, had, in 



i66 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

addition to a large membership, six schools in 
which 214 children were regularly catechised 
and instructed in the knowledge of God. Mr. 
Bryan mentions several instances of masters and 
slaves being gathered around one common altar, 
beseeching mercy from the throne of grace. 

"There was another mission near Savannah, 
that was known as the Ogeechee Mission, which 
was this year served by the Rev. John ?*!. Rems- 
hart. The prospect, as reported by this noble old 
soldier himself, was ' cheering and full of interest.' 
At one meeting he received twenty-seven members 
on trial. At every preaching place he had large 
congregations, 'eager to hear the word of life.' 
Some of those who had but lately embraced re- 
ligion could tell, though in broken language — ' a 
whole and perfect experience.' ' By the help of 
the Spirit,' continues this consecrated missionary, 
' we shall continue to sow the seed, looking to God 
for the shower.' 

" From South Carolina the reports were fully as 
cheering. But the brave missionaries, of course, 
did not find it all sunshine and easy sowing. 

"About this time a report from the Rev. Thom- 
as D. Turpin, the missionary in charge of the May 
and New River Mission, speaks of one of the 
many obstacles in the way of the mission work — 
doubtless one of the most stubborn against which 
they had to contend. A number of the negroes 
on this mission lived on a secluded island. Pre- 
vious to the coming of the missionary, being de- 



The Gospel on the Plantatio 167 

prived of Church privileges, they had organized 
societies among themselves. These were decid- 
edly of Roman Catholic proclivities. Among oth- 
er things they had a regular form of doing pen- 
ance. There were three degrees of punishment, 
inflicted according to the magnitude of the crime. 
If the crime was of the first magnitude, the perpe- 
trator was condemned to pick up a quart of benne 
seed (among the smallest of seeds) which had 
been thrown on the ground by the priest; if of 
the second degree, a quart of rice ; and if of the 
third, a quart of corn. Many times the poor cul- 
prit condemned to pick up the quart of benne seed 
could not get through in a night. In that case, he 
had to return to the task on the following night. 
They also had high seats and low seats, which were 
used as a means of punishment or reward. It was a 
rule among the members of these societies, rigidly 
enforced, never to divulge the secret of stealing; 
to do so brought dire punishment upon the in- 
former. Against such superstitions and ignorance 
as this even the bright light of the gospel and the 
zeal of its noble bearers made but slow headway. 

"One of the most interesting of the negro mis- 
sions at this time was that of the African charge in 
Nashville, Tenn., under the guidance of that grand 
old pioneer, Rev. James Gwin. Writing from that 
place, under date of August 14, 1833, he says: 
* The work of the Lord was greatly increased in 
this mission among the colored people the last 
quarter. Our campmeeting for this state closed 



i68 The Gospel among the Slaves 

last Thursday, about a thousand colored people 
attending. Brother McMahon, our elder, ad- 
dressed them, and administered the Holy Sup- 
per. I have never seen so great a display of 
divine goodness. During the meeting thirty pro- 
fessed to find peace w^ith God, fifty-nine joined 
the Church on trial; the v^ork spreading all 
through the city. At our 3 o'clock meeting in 
the brick church last Sabbath about one hundred 
fell round the altar, apparently deeply sensible of 
their lost state. Several professed to find peace, 
and seventeen joined the society. We have a 
membership of seven hundred, nearly all of whom 
profess to be happy in their Saviour; and what 
greatly encourages me, there is no opposition from 
the owners of slaves.' 

" During the year 1833 there was expended for 
the support of these missions an amount which, 
based upon the two-thirds system estimate, will 
give more than $5,000 from the South Carolina 
and Georgia Conferences alone. From the South 
Carolina Conference, according to the statistics 
gathered by Rev. WilHam M. Wightman, the ap- 
propriation was $3,600. We find record of $2,185 
paid out by the Georgia Conference. 

" Five years of mission work among the slaves 
had forcibly demonstrated the feasibility, as well 
as the true Christian spirit of the experiment. 
Other Conferences beside the South Carolina, 
Georgia, and Tennessee were now seriously and 
prayerfully contemplating participation in the 



The Gospel on the Plantation. 169 

good work. More than one of them, in the reso- 
lutions adopted in the yearly session about this 
time, declared it their intention to urge upon 
slaveholders the necessity of paying more atten- 
tion to the moral and spiritual condition of their 
slaves. The preachers, too, were urged to do ev- 
erything they could to promote this work. 

" The success of the plan, especially in the 
South Carolina and Georgia Conferences, had 
shown beyond a doubt the susceptibility of the 
negro to the enlightenment of the gospel. Only 
half a decade had elapsed since the introduction 
of these missions and the first coming of that no- 
ble pioneer,, the plantation missionary; and now, 
in place of the ignorant, superstitious, and im- 
bruted creature that had first met his gaze and ap- 
pealed to his pitying heart, he had, in many in- 
stances, a mild and rational being, earnest, moral, 
grateful, and rejoicing in the blessed knowledge 
of a rich inheritance gained through a close and 
faithful walk with God. 

"At the close of the year 1833 there were in the 
separate colored missions embraced in the Con- 
ferences mentioned upward of 4,000 Church mem- 
bers in full connection, in addition to nearly 2,000 
more on probation, 800 children under catechet- 
ical instruction, more than 150 regular preaching- 
places, and a population of from 18,000 to 20,000 
blacks reached in some way by the missionary. 
These figures are not given at random, but have 
been carefully and patiently culled from various 



170 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

sources, principally from the letters of the mission- 
aries themselves in the Christian Advocate. In 
the Nashville African Mission alone there were at 
the close of this year 819 members in full connec- 
tion. One mission in the South Carolina Confer- 
ence also returned as many as 1,155 members. 
This was the one on Combahee and Pon Pon, the 
mission which Rev. George W. Moore called ' the 
child of Providence.' " 



CHAPTER XIII. 
Plantation Work Continued to 1844. 

THE year 1834 opened auspiciously for slave 
missions. Many hearts hitherto cold were 
warmed to the work. Tennessee had added an- 
other mission to her list (that on Duck River, in 
the Nashville District), which was placed under 
the charge of Rev. Joshua W. Kilpatrick. Mis- 
sissippi, too, had come bravely to the front by es- 
tablishing her first slave mission, the one to the 
colored people in New Orleans. Georgia had 
nearly doubled her list, showing up nine missions, 
while South Carolina had ten, an increase of one. 
Two of the missions in the Georgia Conference 
were in Florida: one in Gadsden County, served 
by Rev. C. A. Brown, and the other in the St. 
Augustine District. 

"One of the largest and most prosperous mis- 
sions at this time in the bounds of the South Car- 
olina Conference was the mission to the blacks 
near Beaufort. This mission was in charge of 
Rev. George W. Moore. In writing of his work 
he said: 'In taking a general view of the negroes 
in this country, it is very perceptive that a decided 
change has taken place in their general moral char- 
acter. On a plantation where there are about two 
hundred negroes, the overseer told me the other 

(171) 



172 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

day that he beHeved that not a pint of ardent spir- 
its was drunk in a month on the plantation.' 

"Brother Moore recorded a very interesting in- 
cident that occurred on this work. On one of 
the plantations were two little deaf and dumb ne- 
groes. Despite their affliction they were always 
present during the catechising of the other chil- 
dren. Once, soon after catechising, Mr. Moore 
noticed that the elder of these two little boys 
seemed much affected. He was very desirous of 
knowing the cause. The younger boy, not notic- 
ing the tears in the eyes of the elder, took him by 
the hand and brought him to shake hands with the 
missionary. But on noticing the tears, he seemed 
to recall what his brother was crying about. The 
tears, it seems, were not tears of sorrow for sin, 
but tears of anger, he having, a few moments be- 
fore the catechising, grown very angry with a little 
girl who had done him a supposed injury. 

" The younger boy now made signs to the elder 
to go and tight the little girl. At this juncture the 
old woman who acted as nurse began to tell them 
by signs how wrong it was to fight. The younger 
boy, who was the brighter of the two, seemed to 
read correctly her every gesture. He now turned 
to his brother, and pointing upward, as though to 
heaven, and then downward, as though to hell, 
blew on his hands, and then wrung them as in 
pain, as much as to say that if the other did fight 
God would punish him in fire. 'What struck my 
mind forcibly,' wrote Mr. Moore, ' was how this 



Plantation Work Continued to 184.4.. ^73 

little fellow, so young and deprived of any partic- 
ular assistance from any outward circumstance, 
had conveyed to his mind this knowledge.' 

" From the beginning to the close of 1834 most 
favorable reports continued to come from all the 
missions. In April Rev. Thomas C. Benning 
wrote from the missions to slaves on the islands 
below Savannah, that, though a new work, he had 
an interesting one which extended to the slaves of 
five islands. These islands had a population of 
80 whites and over 1,200 blacks. There were 
180 colored children in classes. 

"A little later the Rev. Samuel J. Bryan wrote 
from the other mission near Savannah, that on 
the Savannah and Back Rivers. This mission em- 
braced eighteen plantations and reached about two 
thousand negroes. On one plantation there were 
297 members. The planters, as a general thing, 
were not only favorable to the mission, but liberal. 
One of them had already begun to give $100 a 
year to the mission work. One pleasing sign was 
the readiness with which the children learned the 
catechism and hymns. It had been only about 
twelve months since the opening of the mission, 
yet they could sing with interest all the songs and 
verses which they had been taught, as well as an- 
swer correctly all the questions on the forty pages 
of the catechism prepared expressly for them by 
Dr. Capers. There were several Sunday schools 
connected with this mission. The laws of South 
Carolina and Georgia, as of other slaveholding 



174 -^^^^ Gospel among the Slaves. 

states, threw no obstacle whatever in the way of 
the instruction of the blacks orally in ' the first 
principles of natural and revealed religion.' 

"From the Little River and Sugar Creek Mis- 
sion in Georgia Rev. Samuel Harwell sent cheer- 
ing accounts of an interesting and growing work ; 
two new houses of worship exclusively for the 
blacks ; members ' improving in rational, religious 
enjoyment,' and other encouraging prospects. 

" Rev. E. Leggett, serving the Cape Fear Mis- 
sion in North Carolina under the auspices of the 
South Carolina Conference, wrote of having gone 
to his work under many disadvantages, yet of 
having the mission at the time he wrote generally 
prosperous. All through the work there was a 
deep awakening, many inquiring with tears what 
they must do to be saved. 

" During the same year, Burke County Mission, 
in the Georgia Conference, served by the Rev. L. 
C. Peek, had twenty appointments, two regular 
houses of worship, and three more in use; two of 
them belonging to the whites of the circuit, and 
the other to the Presbyterians. Everywhere the 
mission was looked upon with favor by the slave 
owners. 

"From the Wateree (S. C.) Mission, in May, 
1834, the Rev. Frederick Rush wrote: 'A great 
door is opened here for preaching the gospel. 
The only dissenting voices are from those who 
have neither might nor means to oppose us.' 

" Rev. Charles A. Brown, stationed on the Gads- 



Plantation Work Continued to 1844. 175 

den County Mission in Florida, sent about this time 
a letter to the Christian Advocate published in 
New York, in which he declared: 'This mission 
meets with the approbation of every gentleman 
with whom I have conversed. The slave owners 
speak of it with deep interest. They feel for 
these immortal beings that are committed to them 
not with the austerity of a reckless despot, but 
with the charity of Christian masters.' 

" From the Forsyth Mission, Georgia Confer- 
ence, Rev. John P. Dickinson, after reporting an 
encouraging work that covered fourteen planta- 
tions, closed with these words: ' God is preparing 
a highway for himself in these ends of the earth.' 

" In the summer of the same year Rev. The- 
ophilus Huggins, on May and New River Mission, 
South Carolina, wrote of preaching in a barn and 
under a stand in the woods to congregations of 
negroes that averaged not less than 800 to 1,000 
each time. 

" From the Pedee Mission, same Conference, 
Rev. John B. Chappell, after speaking of the en- 
couraging prospects of his mission, the kindness 
of the planters, and his own determination to do all 
the good he could for the spiritual welfare of this 
long-neglected people, drew a pathetic picture of 
the missionary, notwithstanding the deadly malaria 
of the river swamps, gathering his charge by night 
under the spreading oak, ' bareheaded, by torch- 
light, opening to these poor creatures the word of 
life and salvation.' 



176 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

" For the support of her slave missions, includ- 
ing amounts contributed by the planters and others 
interested in the missions, Georgia gave during 
1834 ^ s^"^ closely approximating in round num- 
bers to $3,000. It may have been something more 
than this, as some items here and there have 
doubtless escaped the eye of the compiler. The 
amount contributed from the South Carolina Con- 
ference, as per plan of estimate, was $2,615. Like 
that from the Georgia Conference, it was doubtless 
more. 

" In the meantime quite a forceful impetus had 
been given the mission work by a most powerful 
sermon on the subject, delivered by Rev. James 
O. Andrew (afterward Bishop Andrew) at the 
Conference session of 1832, held at Darlington, 
S. C. Bishop Wightman's eloquent pen thus de- 
scribes that masterful effort; 

He drew a picture of the irreligious, neglected plantation 
negro, Claudelike in the depth of its tone and coloring. He 
pointed out his degradation, rendered but the deeper and dark- 
er from the fitful and transient flashings up of desires which 
felt after God — scintillations of the immortal, blood-bought 
spirit within him, which ever and again gleamed amidst the 
darkness of his untutored mind. He pointed out the adapta- 
tion of the gospel to the extremest case. Its recovering power 
and provisions were adequate to the task of saving from sin 
and hell all men, of all conditions of life, in all stages of civili- 
zation. He pointed to the converted negro (the noblest prize 
of the gospel) the most unanswerable proof of its efficiency. 
There he was, mingling his morning song with the matin-cho- 
rus of the birds, sending up his orisons to God under the light 
of the evening star, contented with his lot, cheerful in his la- 
bors, submissive for conscience sake to plantation discipline, 



Plantation Work Continued to 18^4.. 177 

happy in life, hopeful in death, and from his lowly cabin car- 
ried at last by the angels to Abraham's bosom. Who could re- 
sist such an appeal, in which argument was fused with fervid 
eloquence? The speech carried by storm the whole assembly. 

" In 1833 there were 8 missions to the slaves in 
South Carolina with a Church membership of over 
3,000, employing 9 preachers, and covering be- 
tween 75 and 80 plantations. In Georgia there 
were 6 with a membership of 1,266, and about 45 
plantations embraced. The, two Conferences to- 
gether gave over $5,000 in support of these mis- 
sions, beside the amount the planters contributed. 
Tennessee had two missions, and Mississippi one. 
What sums were contributed for their support the 
writer has been unable to find. 

'* In 1836 both South Carolina and Georgia in- 
creased their list of slave missions. Georgia had 
now 8 missions; South Carolina, 9; Tennessee, 2; 
Mississippi, i ; and Alabama had just established 
her first mission, the Canebrake Mission, in the 
Greensboro District. Twelve missionaries were 
employed in South Carolina and nine in Geor- 
gia. The mission family in the twa states alone 
had increased to nearly 6,000, while the amount 
contributed for their support was about $7,000. 
The new mission established in the South Caroli- 
na Conference in 1836, that on Waccamaw Neck, 
brought to light the interesting story of ' Black 
Punch,' a name deserving, and will doubtless 
have, perpetual record in the history of Metho- 
dism. It is a name peculiarly and touchingly as- 
sociated with that of the venerated Asbury. 
12 



178 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

" We copy the record from the pen of Rev. 
William M. Wightman: 

On one of the bishop's tours of visitation, in 1788, on his way 
to Charleston, S. C, he was passing through All-Saint's Parish, 
and found, at a creek on his road, a negro engaged in fishing. 
While his horse was drinking, the bishop entered into conver- 
sation with the fisherman. 'What is jour name, my friend.^' 

' Punch, sir.' 

' Do 3'ou ever pray } ' 

' No, sir,' said Punch. 

With this he alighted, fastened his horse, took his seat by the 
side of Punch, and entered into conversation with him on the 
subject of religion, explaining to him in terms suited to his un- 
derstanding the main peculiarities of the Christian system. 
Punch was sufficiently astonished at all this, but listened atten- 
tively ; and as the good bishop sang the hymn, 

Plunged in a gulf of dark despair, 
and closed it with a short but fervent prayer, the poor negro's 
tears came fast and free. The interview over, the bishop bade 
him an affectionate farewell and resumed his journej', never 
expecting to see his face again. After the lapse of twenty 
years, however, when on one of his latest visits to Charleston, 
Bishop Asbury was waited on by Punch, who had obtained per- 
mission from his master to do so, and had traveled seventy 
miles on foot for the purpose. How touching must have been 
their second interview! What a harvest had sprung from the 
handful of bread-seed cast upon the waters! It appeared that 
the bishop had no sooner left Punch than, hastening homeward 

with 

The thoughts that wake. 
To perish never — 

stirring within his soul, he began to pi-actice upon the instruc- 
tions of that memorable conversation. He found the knowl- 
edge of salvation by the remission of sins after several days of 
distress and earnest prayer. The change was too remarkable 
to escape notice. His fellow-servants began to inquire into the 
matter. Those were strange things which Punch had to tell 
them. One and another resorted to his cabin to hear further 
about these things. The interest spread ; many were brought 



Plantation Work Continued to i8^^. 179 

to the knowledge of God. One remarkable result followed. 
An irreligious overseer had charge of the plantation. He as- 
certained that some new influence was stii-ring among the peo- 
ple. Punch was holding prayer meeting at night, and this was 
not to be allowed. He ordered him to desist. Punch accord- 
ingly, with a sorrowful heart, dismissed the company of wor- 
shipers. A week or two passed away, when one evening the 
overseer's voice was heard calling for Punch, while the latter 
was engaged in prayer. In no small alarm he went out, when 
lo! the overseer was found kneeling under a tree, calling upon 
God for mercy, and asking the benefit of Punch's prayers. The 
upshot was his conversion. He joined the Methodist Church, 
became an exhorter, and finally a preacher. 

*' The missionary who was sent to the Wacca- 
maw Mission found, on the plantation where Punch 
lived, between two and three hundred blacks un- 
der the spiritual supervision of the gray-haired pa- 
triarch. ' I was much interested,' said he, * on 
my visit to the old veteran. Just before I reached 
his house I met a herdsman and asked him if there 
was any preacher on the plantation. " O yes, 
massa; de old bishop lib here." Said I: " Is he a 
good preacher? " *'0 yes," was the reply, " he 
word burn me heart." He showed me the house. 
I knocked at the door, and heard approaching 
footsteps and the sound of a cane upon the floor. 
The door opened, and I saw before me, leaning 
upon a staff, a hoary-headed black man, with pal- 
sied limbs but a smiling face. He looked at me a 
moment in silence, then raising his eyes to heaven 
said: '* Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart 
in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation." 
He asked me to take a seat, and I found, in the 



i8o The Gospel among the Slaves. 

following remarks, the reason of his exclamation. 
Said he: "I have many children in this place. I 
have felt for some time past that my end was nigh. 
I have looked around to see who might take my 
place when I am gone. I could find none. I felt 
unwilling to die and leave them so, and have been 
praying to God to send some one to take care of 
them. The Lord has sent you, my child. I am 
ready to go." Tears coursed freely down his 
time-shriveled but smiling face. This interview 
gave me much encouragement. He had heard of 
the application for a missionary, and only wanted 
to live long enough to see his face. After this I 
had several interviews with him, from which I 
learned his early history. I always found him 
contented and happy. In the lapse of a short 
time afterward, he was taken ill and lingered a 
few days. One Sabbath morning he told me that 
he would die that day. He addressed affecting 
words to the people who crowded around his dy- 
ing bed. His theme was: " Lord, now lettest thou 
thy servant depart in peace." He applied these 
words to himself, and continued his address to the 
last moment, and death gently stole his spirit away 
while saying: " Lord, let thy servant depart in 
peace, let — ^let — le — " His mistress sent for me to 
preach his funeral sermon. The corpse was de- 
cently shrouded, and the coffin was carried to the 
house of worship. I looked upon the face of the 
cold clay. The departed spirit had left the im- 
press of heaven upon it. Could I be at a loss for 



Plantation Work Continued to 1844.. 181 

a text? I read out of the gospel : " Lord, now let- 
test thou thy servant depart in peace." ' 

*' This missionary, if the writer mistakes not, 
was the Rev. Theophilus Huggins, one of the no- 
blest soldiers in the ranks, who early entered it 
with a zeal and devotion surpassed by none. 

*' There is something else connected with this 
Waccamaw Neck Mission that deserves to be put 
in perpetual record, and that is the active and zeal- 
ous efforts made by the Rev. James L. Belin to 
Christianize his slaves. Says Rev. A. M. Chreitz- 
berg in a letter to the writer : ' He began the mis- 
sion work on Waccamaw Neck as early or earlier 
than the earliest named.' Investigation of the rec- 
ords show that Mr. Belin began the mission work 
to the slaves as early as 18 19, ten years before the 
Revs. John Honour and John Massey were sent as 
regular missionaries. Among the first plantations 
on which he preached were those of Robert With- 
ers and Maj. Ward. With the assistance of the 
Rev. Theophilus Huggins, Mr. Belin, in 1836, 
formed the Waccamaw Neck Mission. Mr. Belin 
continued to the day of his death to labor strenu- 
ously for the salvation of the souls of the negroes. 
He was killed in 1859 ^J ^ ^^^ from his buggy. 
He bequeathed nearly all his large property to the 
carrying out of this work of salvation among his 
slaves. In the same year of Mr. Belin's death 
Rev. Mr. Chreitzberg dedicated a commodious 
house of worship erected for the slaves. As 
much as $40,000 of Mr. Belin's magnificent be- 



i82 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

quest to his slaves survived the wreck of war, 
and Mr. Chreitzberg, who is a trustee of the fund, 
writes that, ' the negroes having gone into other 
Churches, the mission is now kept up to the poor 
whites.' 

"In 1837 there were 25 distinct slave missions 
throughout the bounds of the following Confer- 
ence: South Carolina, 10; Georgia, 6; Mississip- 
pi, 4; Alabama, 2; Tennessee, 2; Kentucky, i; 
and Arkansas, i . The numbers in the mission fam- 
ily had now increased to nearly 10,000. This was 
exclusive of those in the regular circuits. The re- 
port of the South Carolina Conference Missionary 
Society declared nearly all the missions in the 
bounds of that Conference as highly prosperous 
and promising beyond the most sanguine expecta- 
tions. A like cheering report came from Georgia. 
Before these respective societies numerous commu- 
nications from the most respectable and influential 
sources, in high praise of the mission work, were 
read, and greatly cheered the hearts of the work- 
ers. The South Carolina Society declared that, 
' notwithstanding the troublous times on which we 
are fallen, and the agitations that have swept in 
swelling waves through the public mind and the 
giant shadows cast by pending events, we bless 
God and take courage.' The missionaries were 
recommended to concern themselves alone with 
the moral and spiritual wants of the negro popula- 
tion and to avoid all political discussions. 

" The catechising of the young was found a 



Plantation Work Continued to 18^4.. 183 

most promising means of enlightenment. Rev. 
Thomas J. Williamson, writing, about this time, 
from the Burke County Mission, in Georgia, said: 
' I have become more interested in teaching the 
young. Many of them progress astonishingly, all 
things considered. They appear quite anxious to 
learn, and some of them inquire after the mission- 
ary, and wish the time to come when they may 
meet him again. I discover that a majority of 
them possess a strong attachment for me, which is 
very necessary to render me more useful to them. 
The present generation will soon be past, and the 
rising one that we now instruct catecheticall}^ will 
take their place. And we hope and pray that by 
the blessing of God upon our humble exertions the 
latter will be higher in the scale of religious knowl- 
edge than the former.' Mr. Williamson also adds 
this significant remark: 'The people who attend 
my ministry are comfortably and neatly clad ; 
and I can assure you that a congregation of ne- 
groes in this section of country presents no mean 
nor deeply degraded appearance, whatever may be 
said to the contrary, notwithstanding.' 

"Rev. William McQuentock, writing at this same 
period, also bears testimony to the ease and facility 
with which the minds of the young negroes grasped 
the first great truths of Christianity. All the mis- 
sionaries seemed to recognize fully the importance 
of carefully instructing the children and also to 
give them every religious opportunity. Rev. Sam- 
uel Leard, one of the most faithful and successful 



184 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

of this noble army of light bearers, relates a most 
affecting incident that took place in the summer 
of 1837. He was holding a class meeting, when 
his attention was attracted by the sound of con- 
tinued sobbing on the outside of the house. Step- 
ping to the door, he there saw the touching spec- 
tacle of many children gathered about it weeping 
as though their hearts would break. They heard 
some of that which was going on within, the va- 
ried and thrilling experience of those cleansed of 
their sins, and it had pierced their souls. The 
heart of the good missionary was moved. He de- 
termined to hold special services for their benefit. 
He did so, and was rewarded. Many were con- 
verted and brought rejoicing into the Church. 

" Rev. John R. Pickett, from the Black Swamp 
Mission, South Carolina, also wrote of special ef- 
forts made by him among the children, which 
were crowned with rich results. He also spoke 
of the families of the owners and overseers keep- 
ing up the catechising in his absence. 

" This year South Carolina and Georgia alone 
raised nearly $10,000 for Missions — that is, basing 
it upon the two-thirds plan. That it was in excess 
of this is strongly evidenced by the report of the 
Rev. Thomas- C. Benning, Conference Treasurer 
of the Georgia Conference, giving the amount of 
appropriations for missions from that Conference 
as $6,282, and adding these words: ^mostly for 
missions to ■peo'ple of color.'' Another significant 
matter is that Mr. Benning says in his report that 



Plantation Work Continued to 18^4.. 185 

' it is less this year than it has ever been before.' 
These words alone will show that the amounts 
given in the statistical tables are far below 
what they ought to be. It must ever be a source 
of regret that these appropriations for the support 
of slave missions were not separated. The total 
amount contributed by the South Carolina Con- 
ference for the year 1837 was $7,246.78, $2,156.- 
16 of which was contributed by the planters of the 
different missions. 

"At the anniversary of the Georgia Missionary 
Society, held at Athens, Ga., in January, 1838, it 
was resolved that renewed efforts should be put 
forth in behalf of the colored people of the sea- 
coast. The peculiarities of their location, se- 
cluded from the circuits, called for special efforts 
to give them the advantages of the gospel. Many 
of them had never heard preaching from a white 
man's lips until they heard it from those of the 
faithful Methodist missionary. The picture pre- 
sented of their wretched condition, ' intrenched 
within rice dams and surrounded by the pestilen- 
tial miasma, an isolated, cast-off race, unvisited 
by the common preacher,' was truly startling, and 
surely did call for the most zealous exercise of 
Christian endeavor. But where the ' common 
preacher ' hesitated to go, there went the Meth- 
odist missionary, undismayed by danger, strong in 
the mighty upholding of his own zeal and faith in 
a sustaining God. 

"At the beginning of 1838 much good was done 



i86 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

the mission cause through a widely circulated ser- 
mon delivered by the Rev. George Freeman, of 
Raleigh, N. C, on 'Duty to the Slaves.' He 
took for his text Colossians iv. i : * Masters, give 
unto your servants that which is just and equal; 
knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven.' 
Never had a more forceful sermon been delivered 
on a more vital question. 

" Many affecting scenes were constantly taking 
place between the missionar}^ and the people. 
They seemed the most grateful of creatures, as 
if they could not do too much for him who had 
come to lead them out of the darkness. Rev. 
John N. Davis, writing from the Pocotaligo Mis- 
sion, South Carolina Conference, related a most 
touching incident that took place at the close of 
his first sermon on a plantation just added to the 
mission. As he closed his sermon, many of the 
poor creatures thronged about him, while with 
tears rolling from their eyes they said: ' T'anky, 
massa; t'anky, missie; t'anky, my good preacher, 
fur de gospel.' It is needless to add in the mis- 
sionary's own words, ' it was a moving scene.' 
Doubtless those tears fell upon his already faithful 
heart with the dew of consecration. 

" Rev. Edwin White, on the Burke County Mis- 
sion in Georgia, also writes of a similar touching 
experience in an assembly of weeping negroes, to 
whom he had just preached, crowding up about 
him to bless him for the light and comfort he had 
brought them. In that last day how many such 



Plantation Work Continued to 18^4.. 187 

pearls — words of blessing and of gratitude from 
the lips of the poor slave — will shine in the crown 
of these noble, Godlike men who counted nothing 
dear, not even life itself, that they might minister 
to the spiritual comfort of such as these ! 

" Many other similar instances could be re- 
corded ; indeed, they were constantly occurring. 
Nor were the children less grateful. Revs. 
Thomas Ledbetter and William C. Kirkland, after 
writing many interesting things of their work on 
the Beaufort Mission, spoke of the great joy with 
which the children of the various plantations of the 
islands hailed the period of the missionary's regular 
visits. How eagerly they ran to open the gate ! how 
the}'' crowded up about him, touching his hands, 
his clothing with the most affectionate freedom, yet 
with an unmistakable air of veneration mingled 
throughout it all. When he went away, there was 
the same readiness to open gates, but not the same 
air of cheerful alacrity, while the tear-filled eye and 
the tremulous lip showed the depth of feeling even 
in their young hearts, as they looked at him wist- 
fully with the earnest reminder: ' Come back again 
soon, sir.' 

" That the gospel preached by the faithful mis- 
sionary had power to reach all hearts, the fol- 
lowing incident, related by Rev. S. D. Laney, 
missionary to the Pedee Mission, will show: 'Jim 
had stolen some of his master's corn, and was 
absent from the preaching, and on my inquir- 
ing after him, one remarked thus: "Ah, m.assa, 



i88 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

he 'fraid you preach at him, dat make him no come 
to-day." One who is guilty of an offense of this 
sort is looked upon with general contempt. This 
is an effect of the gospel being preached to them.' 

"At the end of the first decade of slave missions 
the ground covered, in South Carolina alone, ex- 
tended from Waccamaw Neck and Pedee River 
on the east to the Savannah River on the west, 
and embraced 234 plantations. These plantations 
were served by 17 missionaries under the general 
supervision of three superintendents. These mis- 
sionaries preached at 97 appointments, and had 
under their regular pastoral charge 6,556 Church 
members, to whom they furnished the preaching 
and administered the sacraments and discipline of 
the Christian Church. And, further, they had 
under regular catechetical instruction 25,025 negro 
children. 

" Truly these active missionaries had not been as 
'dumb driven cattle,' but as ' heroes in the strife.' 
Imperishable should be the record to their memory. 

'* The year 1839 opened with 54 special missions 
to people of color throughout the various South- 
ern Conferences having them in their bounds, 
with a membership in this mission family alone of 
between 18,000 and 20,000. This did not include 
the members in regular charges or the colored 
members in separate Churches in the cities and 
larger towns, known as city colored charges, but 
simply included those served by the regular plan- 
tation missionary. 




REV. J. A. BEKBE, 
Bishop of the Colored M. E. Church. 

(See page 380.) 



Plantation Work Continued to 184.^. 189 

" Some of these 'African charges,' as the city 
colored Churches were styled, were at several 
places in excess of the white membership. Very 
few of them that did not run largely into the hun- 
dreds. Thus the Kentucky Conference, that only 
reported in the bounds of its two regular missions 
to the slaves 313 members, had in the Louisville 
colored charge alone 495 members. The largest 
colored charge of all was that in South Carolina, 
at Charleston, which numbered 3,742. The next 
largest was the Sharp Street and Asbury, of Balti- 
more, 2,600; and the next the Nashville African 
Mission, well up in the hundreds. Virginia, which 
up to this time had not reported a single special 
slave mission, had, in all the larger cities and many 
of the small towns, flourishing colored charges, 
noticeably that at Norfolk, which numbered 337 — 
seven more than the white membership of the city. 
The total colored membership for 1838 throughout 
the various Conferences having special slave mis- 
sions — the Georgia, South Carolina, Kentucky, 
Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee — was 58,313, 
of which 27,630 were in South Carolina and 10,- 
180 in Georgia. This does not include the other 
Southern Conferences, each of which had a large 
slave membership scattered through the various 
circuits and charges. The total colored member- 
ship of 1839, lying in the Southern body, was 84,- 
332. In 1839 Texas, too, added her first colored 
charge — 43 members. 

" In 1841 Virginia established her first slave 



ipo The Gospel among the Slaves. 

mission (the Prince Edward Colored Mission), 
which was put in charge of Rev. Matthew N. 
Dance. From that time on we find his name 
constantly associated with this work, as also those 
of Benjamin Devaney, Samuel -Phillips, and L#ewis 
Skidmore. 

" Kentucky had, in the meantime, thrown her two 
missions into the regular circuit work, and cared for 
them there. In the next year after Virginia, 1842, 
the North Carolina Conference, also, came to the 
front with her first regular slave mission, the Roa- 
noke Mission, in the Washington District. But up 
to this time she, too, had been far from idle in the 
matter of the spiritual care of her slaves. Like 
the Kentucky, Holston, and other Conferences, 
she had made faithful provision for them through 
her circuits and charges. At the time of the es-, 
tablishment of her first regular slave mission, she 
showed a total colored membership of 9,373. The 
names of some of the noble veterans who were the 
earliest in this work from the North Carolina Con- 
ference were Bennet T. Blake, William Carter, 
R. J. Carson, Joseph Goodman, and Thomas J. 
Cassaday. 

" In this year (1842) Arkansas established her 
second regular slave mission, or what was at that 
time her only one, as the other had been put into 
the regular charge. This second mission, which 
was the first she kept running as a regular mission, 
was known as the 'Red River Colored Mission.' 
It is but proper to remark at this point that Arkan- 



Plantation Work Continued to 184.^. 191 

sas was actively engaged in caring for the Indians, 
numbers of whom were within her borders. But 
she too had been faithful in the care of her col- 
ored people, showing at that time a total colored 
membership of 828, The names of A. L. Kava- 
naugh, Henry Hubbard, and Alexander Avery ap- 
pear prominent among the first of her slave mis- 
sionaries. 

" South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennes- 
see, and Alabama were advancing in the good 
cause. Plantation after plantation was put into the 
hands of the missionary. East, South, and West 
fields stretched white to the harvest. Louder and 
more prolonged grew the cry for more laborers. 
The Church responded with promptness and en- 
ergy. Said one of the most zealous of the Con- 
ference Treasurers at that time: ' Though our 
funds are exhausted and we know not where the 
next are to come from, still this work ryiiist go on, 
these missions to the slaves must be kept up, cost 
what it may.' He but echoed the sentiment of 
every Christian heart when those words were ut- 
tered. Poor Ethiopia struggled in the bonds of pa- 
gan darkness — bonds far more terrible than any 
that bound her bodily. Her wailing cry fell on 
the ears of a Christian brotherhood, who heard, 
pitied, and succored. 

" In the meantime the work had spread even to 
the wild frontiers of Texas. Through the kind- 
ness of Dr. Homer S. Thrall we are enabled to 
give a few points touching the early mission work 
13 



192 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

to the slaves in Texas. These would otherwise 
have been left in obscurity, as the Minutes do not 
give these missions as colored missions, but sim- 
ply as missions. This makes the author fear that 
injustice has been done in other directions and 
many missions that were colored missions have 
been left unrecorded. This difficulty we have en- 
deavored to avoid as far as possible by noting the 
membership given, whether under white or colored 
column. But often this discouraging line has met 
the eye: ' No returns given.' 

"Says Dr. Thrall: 'The first report of mem- 
bers of the Methodist Church in Texas was in 
1839, and there were reported then 43 colored 
members. We have but brief records of the work 
of Dr. Martin Ruter, the first superintendent of 
the mission work in Texas; but in those notices 
it is stated that he, and indeed all the preachers, 
devoted Sunday afternoon to the slave population, 
wherever there were slaves to preach to. There 
was a universal willingness on the part of the 
planters to have their negroes preached to and 
catechised. The first preacher appointed exclu- 
sively to the slaves was Jesse Hord to the Brazoria 
Mission, in 1843. At a later period J. W. Devil- 
biss, Joseph P. Sneed, Robert Crawford, Francis 
Wilson, M. Yell, and others equally worthy were 
employed in the work. At the organization of the 
Texas Annual Conference, in 1840, there were re- 
ported 230 colored members. Ten years later 
there were 1,847, and in i860, 7,440, with 20 mis- 



Plantation Work Continued to iS/j.^ 193 

sions to the colored people, mostly, however, con- 
nected with v/hite charges, the same preacher 
serving both congregations.' " 

The remaining notices, required to bring the 
history of the work up to the year 1844, will be 
found in the various contributions to this volume 
made by the missionaries themselves, and in the 
extracts from a large variety of articles which will 
not readily conform to the division of the work 
adopted by the editor. It is our purpose to show, 
firstly, the interest taken in the salvation of the 
slaves by the white race of the South, slaveholders 
and nonslaveholders alike; secondly, we propose 
to show that the division of the Church in 1844 
emphasized and enlarged that interest, but did not 
create it. 

For this purpose we think that the year 1844 
forms a definite historical era. Whatever existed 
prior to that time was not the product of that time, 
and inasmuch as the sending of the gospel to the 
African slaves was an enterprise that had grown 
into proportions nearly or quite equal to the mis- 
sionary efforts in behalf of the white race, the 
reader will be able to see how greatly the cause of 
Christ was placed in peril by the action of the 
General Conference of 1844. 

In order to bring the statistics of the plantation 
work from 1829 to 1844 distinctly into view, we 
append a table which gives in regular order from 
year to year the number of missions to slaves es- 
tablished by the various Conferences, the number 



194 



The Gospel among the Slaves. 



of missionaries, the number of Church members 
among the African slaves, and amounts appropri- 
ated by the several Conferences for the support of 

the work. 

Statistics from 1829 to 1844. 



Year. 



1829 
1830 
1831 
1831 
1832 
1833 
1832 
1833 
1833 
1833 
1834 
1834 
1834 
.1834 
1835 
1835 
1835 
1835 
1836 
1836 
1836 
1836 
1836 

1837 
1837 

1837 
1837 
1837 

1837 
1837 
1838 
1838 
1S38 
1838 
1838 
1838 
1838 
1839 
1839 



Conference. 



South Carolina 
South Carolina 
South Carolina 

Georgia 

South Cai-olina 

Georgia 

Tennessee 

South Carolina 

Georgia 

Tennessee 

South Carolina 

Georgia 

Tennessee 

Mississippi. . . . 
South Carolina 

Georgia 

Tennessee 

Mississippi. . , 
South Cai-olina 

Georgia 

Tennessee 

Mississippi. . . . 

Alabama 

South Carolina 

Georgia 

Tennessee 

Mississippi. . . . 

Alabama 

Kentucky 

Arkansas 

South Carolina 

Georgia 

Tennessee 

Mississippi. . . . 

Alabama 

Kentucky 

Arkansas 

South Carolina 
Georgia 



Missions. 


Members. 


Mission- 
aries. 


2 


417 


2 


3 


1,077 


3 


3 


1,242 


3 


I 


115 


I 


2 


1,395 


3 


4 


936 


4 


2 


190 


2 


9 


1,426 


II 


5 


1,105 


5 


I 


819 


I 


10 


2,913 


II 


9 


1,385 


9 


2 


824 


2 


I 




I 


8 


3,134 


9 


6 


1,266 


7 


2 


621 


3 


I 




I 


9 


4,417 


12 


8 


1,357 


II 


2 


701 


2 


I 


523 


I 


I 


139 


I 


10 


9,693 


12 


6 


1,298 


7 


2 


810 


2 


4 


459 


4 


2 


383 


2 


I 




I 


I 




I 


12 


6,556 


13 


6 


1,381 


6 


5 


960 


5 


5 


710 


5 


2 




2 


I 


718 


I 


I 


130 


I 


18 


7,160 


24 


16 


3,864 


19 



Amount 
Appropri'd. 



216 00 

727 67 



1,519 45 

856 25 

656 35 

3,600 00 

25,00 00 

465 00 

2,61 1; 00 

2,818 65 

850 00 

2,821 42 
2,445 00 



4,194 00 

2,749 58 
950 00 

757 72 

165 00 

4,831 20 

4,118 00 

1,440 00 
745 65 

204 50 
4,530 36 
2,860 22 
1,056 72 
1,485 40 
911 42 
756 00 

4,464 80 
3,398 74 



Plantation Work Continued to 184^. 195 
Statistics from 1829 to 1844 (Continued). 



CONFEKENCE. 

Mississippi. . . . 

Alabama 

Tennessee 

Kentucky 

South Carolina 

Georgia 

Alabama 

Mississippi. . . . 

Tennessee 

Memphis 

South Carolina 

Georgia 

Alabama 

Mississippi. . . , 

Tennessee 

Memphis 

Baltimore 

Virginia 

South Carolina 

Georgia 

Alabama 

Mississippi. . . . 

Tennessee 

Memphis 

North Carolina 

Arkansas 

Virginia 

South Carolina 

Georgia 

Mississippi. . , . 

Memphis 

Alabama 

Tennessee 

Virginia 

North Carolina 

Arkansas 

South Carolina 

Georgia 

Memphis 

Mississippi. . . . , 

Alabama 

Tennessee , 

Florida 

North Carolina 

Virginia 

Arkansas 



Missions. 

10 
6 

9 

2 

18 
15 

9 

8 

7 

4 
16 
12 

8 
10 

5 

5 

2 

I 

17 
13 

8 

7 

4 

7 

I 

I 

2 

16 
II 

9 

9 

6 

4 
3 
2 
I 
16 
9 

ID 
10 

9 
6 

3 

2 

2 



Members. 

3,672 
1,671 
2,316 

505 
7,631 
3,972 
2,691 
3,908 
3,251 

769 
7,557 
3,913 
2,793 
4,302 
1,120 

923 



7,866 

3,787 
2,009 
2,466 
1,624 
1,567 

125 

261 

7,262 

3,291 

2,187 
2,261 

2,131 
696 
428 
153 

138 
7,922 

3,051 
2,655 
3,419 
2,146 
1,707 
530 
148 

357 
128 



Mission- 
aries. 

12 

6 

10 

2 
24 
17 

9 
10 

8 

4 
21 

14 

8 
12 

5 

5 

2 

I 

25 
16 



2 

23 

13 

10 

10 

7 

4 

3 

2 



12 

12 

10 

6 

3 
2 
2 
I 



Amount 
Appi'opri'd. 

$3,741 26 
1,800 00 
2,700 00 
600 00 
3,780 90 
3,100 00 
2,326 00 
2,400 00 
2,100 00 
1,200 00 
4,950 80 
4,821 06 
2,160 24 
2,432 00 

1,213 43 

1,500 00 

600 00 

300 00 

5,576 79 

3,978 45 

3,028 25 

3,028 96 

1,200 00 

2,037 10 

300 00 

300 00 

600 00 

7,695 22 

4,464 55 
2,392 50 
1,812 25 

3,364 95 

1,5^2 36 

900 00 

908 50 

300 00 

7,356 20 

3,870 30 

2,134 10 

1,624 95 

2,864 85 

1,820 75 

905 90 

902 20 

600 00 

300 00 



196 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

Thus it appears that from the small beginning 
of the two plantation missions in 1829, with 2 mis- 
sionaries and 417 members, within fifteen years 
the work had grown to 68 missions, 71 missiona- 
ries, and 21,063 members. The amount appropri- 
ated by the South Carolina Conference was so 
small that no record had been made of it for the 
year 1829, but in 1844 the Southern Conferences 
paid $22,379.25 for this work, South Carolina 
leading the list with $7,356.20. 

It has already been stated that the actual amount 
expended cannot be accurately known because 
many contributions were given under circum- 
stances that rendered it difficult to ascertain the 
amounts and the names of the contributors. Pres- 
ents in kind to the family of the missionary, valua- 
ble as the money itself, could not always be rated 
in that way for obvious reasons, yet they lessened 
the cash requisitions upon the missionary treasury 
and gave great aid to the cause. After making 
as thorough an examination as the case will allow, 
there can be little doubt that the Southern Confer- 
ences contributed fully $200,000 to the special 
work of sending the gospel to the slaves on large 
plantations between the years 1829 and 1844. 

Of the total amounts reported to the Annual 
Conferences, $168,458.87, the South Carolina 
Conference paid $58,879.81: Georgia, $41,980.- 
80; Mississippi, $19,302.79; Alabama, $17,366.- 
36; Tennessee, $14,524.56; Memphis, $8,683.45; 
Virginia, $2,400; North Carolina, $2,110.70; Ar- 
kansas, $1,104.50; Florida, $905.90; Baltimore, 
-$600; and Kentucky, $600. 



CHAPTER XIV. 
Notes from the Pioneers. 

NO description of any movement can be better 
understood than by giving close attention to 
the words of those who were the leaders in that 
movement. Many of the pioneers in the planta- 
tion mission work have left such records to the 
Church, and from these we will endeavor to give 
the reader an insight of this enterprise at its com- 
mencement. Tedious details will be avoided, and 
much of the matter that was instructive and profit- 
able when these accounts were written, must, of 
necessity, be omitted. Time has rendered many 
allusions obscure, and incidents that derived their 
chief interest from local causes have ceased to be 
attractive to the modern reader. For these rea- 
sons we shall abridge from time to time, and some- 
times it may be that we shall remodel a communi- 
cation. The object is to unfold the surroundings, 
and to give to the mind of the reader a distinct 
picture of this missionary work. 

The first of these " Notes " was written by Rev. 
G. W. Moore, of the South Carolina Conference. 
As fair samples of these sketches, we will vouch 
for the reader's interest in the details of "Life 
among the Lowly." 

(197) 



198 The Gosfel among the Slaves. 

COMBAHEE, PON PON, BeAUFORT, AND CoOPER 

River Missions. 

Bj Rev. George W. Moore, of the South Carolina Conference. 

The Combahee Mission may be considered a 
child of Providence. It had its rise in the follow- 
ing manner: A Mrs. Bearfield, a pious old lady, a 
member of the M. E. Church, was employed by 
Mrs. Charles Baring to look after and attend the 
sick. Through her an invitation was extended 
from Mrs. Baring to one of the preachers of the 
Black Swamp Circuit to visit the plantation and 
preach to their people. The preacher, however, 
did not attend, in consequence of Mr. Baring not 
being at home at the time, he supposing it would 
not be prudent for him to do so. At his failure to 
come Mrs. Baring was greatly disappointed. 

Being in the neighborhood and hearing of Mrs. 
Baring's disappointment, I proposed to go, and ac- 
cordingly did so. I stayed with Sister Bearfield, 
and went out that night and preached to the blacks 
in a large room near Mrs. Baring's dwelling. We 
had quite a good meeting. Sister Bearfield got so 
happy she shouted. Mrs. Baring had company 
that evening, among the guests being the Episco- 
pal minister. He, with the family, I was after- 
ward told, stood near the window during a part of 
the service. Soon after the meeting closed, Mrs. 
Baring sent a servant with refreshments to me and 
an invitation to call on her the next morning. I 
did so, and had quite a pleasing interview with her, 
in which she expressed her satisfaction at my com- 



Notes from the Pioneers. 199 

ing and desire for the continuance of my visits to 
her people. This was in the year 1828. Brother 
Samuel W. Capers and myself, being on the Or- 
angeburg Circuit, our appointment reaching down 
near Mr. Baring's plantation, we embraced that 
place in the plan of the circuit, and preached there 
regularly. The next year, I think it was, it was 
set off for regular mission work, and Rev. John 
Honour appointed missionary. The year follow- 
ing I was sent to the mission, Brother Honour 
having died in the work. This year the mission 
also embraced Mr. John Dawson's plantation in 
St. John's and was called the St. John's, Pon Pon, 
and Combahee Mission. There was a church 
built in the vicinity of Mr. Dawson's place for 
the blacks, which still exists, and in which I 
preached to a large congregation of devout wor- 
shipers last Sunday. The place is now connected 
with the Cooper River Mission, and embraces 
members from several plantations in the neighbor- 
hood. 

The Pon Pon Mission, when I took charge of it, 
embraced Col. Morris's place on the Bluff, with 
several places on the other side of the river be- 
longing to the estate, and Gov. Aiken's place on 
Jehossee Island. I generally preached in an old 
cooper shop opposite the Bluff Place, where the 
negroes from all the other plantations attended. 
Here we usually held a sunrise prayer meeting 
and catechised the children from the estate place. 
I have often been interested in seeing the little fel- 



200 The Gospel among the Slaves, 

lows running on the rice bank toward the cooper 
shop, and entering almost out of breath. The first 
thing they would do would be to clasp my hand 
and tell me " how-dy," and while upon my knees 
in prayer they would get as near as possible, some 
of them leaning against my feet with their heads. 
The negroes from the Bluff and the estate all wor- 
shiped in the cooper shop, and O how often has 
my heart rejoiced in their joy at the knowledge of 
the gospel of Christ Jesus ! 

Col. Morris and others would attend sometimes 
with their families and with the overseers and their 
families, and often around the same altar you could 
see several of those white persons mingling their 
cries for mercy with those of the blacks, and many 
together found the pearl of great price. 

Among the most prominent of the colored lead- 
ers on this work there was January, a very faith- 
ful man, who generally held a long reed in his 
hand, and if he saw any one asleep he would 
give them a tap on the head to wake them up. 
In the love feast if any one would speak as he 
thought a little too long he would cry out: " Short 
and sweet, ray hearty, short and sweet." 

These love feasts were precious seasons, and 
highly prized by the members of the Church. 
You could see two or three up at one time wait- 
ing to speak. On one occasion one of the mem- 
bers, hearing some of the others speak of their 
trials and difficulties, said: "My bredren, I hab 
my dif'culties an' trials too, but de Lo'd so good 



Notes fro7n the Pioneers. 201 

to me I ain't hab time to t'ink ob dem fur de mer- 
cies he sends me long wid 'em." Another said: 
"My bredren, I hab my hard bone fur to chaw, 
an' my bitter pill fur to swaller, but bredren, I tell 
you what, 'ligion makes de bone turn to marrow 
an' de bitter to sweet. 'Ligion' s jus' like de 
spring in de back country, de furder you go de 
sweeter de water tastes." 

Their sweet songs, sung with a fervidness inde- 
scribable, added much to the pleasure of the occa- 
sion. 

We generally preached at the estate place in the 
morning, and in the afternoon at Jehossee. Here 
we preached in a room next to the hospital, so that 
the sick might hear as well as those who were not 
sick. Gov. Aiken was exceeding kind to us; so 
was his overseer, Mr. Bagwell. The first letter I 
received from Gov. Aiken, inclosing his donation 
of $100, impressed me sensibly. It had the same 
effect upon Bishop Andrew, who asked me to let 
him keep it. 

The overseers would generally send up to the es- 
tate place for us a large boat rowed by six or eight 
hands. I remember a conversation that took place 
between Dr. Capers and one of the hands on the 
boat. The Dr. asked him, among other things, 
how he liked the overseer, which is the test ques- 
tion among the negroes. In reply he said : " Mas- 
sa he good man; he nebber promise nuffin he no 
gib you. If he promise you whippin', you's as 
sho' to git 'em as if you had 'em on you' back." 



202 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

I soon found the secret of the good government 
on this place; it was decision of character. I vis- 
ited the place at all times during the year, and I 
never, to my recollection, heard the overseer swear, 
get in a passion, or whip a negro during all that pe- 
riod, and it was all because the negroes understood 
that he meant what he said, and a promise was as 
good as performed. 

I have already mentioned that in preaching at 
Mr. Charles Baring's we occupied a room near to 
his dwelling. Adjoining this was another of small- 
er dimensions, where the white persons who at- 
tended sat, among whom could generall}^ be seen 
Mr. and Mrs. Baring, who took a deep interest in 
the welfare of their people. I have often seen 
Mrs. Baring, when the negroes were singing, catch 
the motion of their bodies and do just as they did. 
On one occasion, when taking my seat at the din- 
ner table, Mr. Baring took my hand, and, while 
under the influence of much feeling, said, with em- 
phasis: "Sir, this [referring to the service that 
had just taken place] must do good, it will do 
good, it5/m//do good." And he pressed my hand 
very warmly in his. At another time, when about 
leaving for their summer residence, they asked me 
to retire with them to a private room and there en- 
gage in prayer for the salvation of their people. 

On one occasion I preached to a British Admi- 
ral, who was an American born citizen, who was on 
a visit to the family. He sat in the rear of the ne- 
groes and was quite attentive during the service. 



Notes from the Pioneers. 203 

Mr. Baring was most generous In the support of 
the mission, and I believe at one time carried it 
entirely. His good wife was not one whit behind 
him in zeal. Often when coming from the serv- 
ice I have heard her say to him: "Now, Charles, 
I hope you will take to heart what Mr. Moore has 
said." Noble woman, I hope she is in heaven ! 

The Beaufort Mission was attached to the Com- 
bahee and Pon Pon in 1832, and John R. Coburn 
sent with me to serve the work. The Beaufort 
Mission had its origin through a religious revival 
that took place among the Baptists and Episcopa- 
lians in Beaufort and vicinity, instigated by Rev. 
Mr. Daniel Baker, a Presbyterian minister. The 
stores were closed and business in the town sus- 
pended for several days, so great was the interest 
taken. This revival caused the planters, several 
of whom made Beaufort their summer residence, 
to turn their attention to the condition of their 
slaves. Not being able to get the services of an 
Episcopal or Baptist minister, they, through the 
influence of Mr. Pinckney, who at the time had 
the services of a Methodist minister on his planta- 
tion on the Santee, applied to our Conference for 
help, and Beaufort Island was taken in along with 
Combahee, Pon Pon, and Wappahoola, the mis- 
sion having that name at the time. 

One pleasing part of the Beaufort work was 
that the young ladies took quite an active part in 
the instruction of the colored children, both in 
Beaufort and on the plantations of their fathers. 



204 The Gosfel among the Slaves. 

Frequently I found them under the shade of the 
spreading oak, with a group of Httle negroes around 
them, instructing them in the catechism. The 
planters too were active in the work. Some of 
the wealthiest and most distinguished gentlemen 
would spend every Sabbath afternoon in impart- 
ing religious instruction to the negroes, young and 
old. 

I commenced my labors in Beaufort by preach- 
ing to the negroes in the old Tabernacle Church, 
belonging to the Baptists, and holding prayer 
meetings, with the assistance of a few Christian 
gentlemen, in the Episcopal lecture room. We 
soon enjoyed as great a revival among the colored 
people as there had been among the whites. I ex- 
tended my labors to Paris, Cat, St. Helena, Da- 
than, Coosa, Lady's, Beaufort, and Big Islands, 
and on the mainland, where we soon enjoyed 
much prosperity. I left the converts free to join 
the Church of their choice. At one time, with 
my full consent, over two hundred of them were 
added to the Baptist Church. 

The mission at that time was similar to a circuit, 
I went regularly round, week day and Sunday. 
We preached on Paris Island on Sunday, the ne- 
groes from all the plantations attending. We had 
no church building at that time, but occupied a 
house on the plantation of our patron, Mr. Robert 
Means. We would also preach at some of the 
other places at night. I recollect on one occa- 
sion preaching with a negro holding a lightwood 



Notes fr 0711 the Pioneers. 205 

torch at my back to throw Hght on my Bible and 
hymn book. At first v^^e preached at two or three 
places on the island on Sunday, as we confined our 
labors a good deal to plantation preaching. We 
catechised during the week, and also preached at 
several places on week days. Robert Means, 
Esq., Dr. Thomas Fuller, Rev. S. Elliott, Mrs. 
Habersham, and William Eddings owned the en- 
tire island, and we had access to all the plantations. 

There were two very remarkable cases of the 
power of the voice of conscience that occurred on 
this island. After one of my sermons on Mr. 
Means's place, a woman got possession of the key 
of the house where the molasses was kept. She 
went to steal some to send to a woman on a neigh- 
boring island, and when she had put the key in 
the door, she stood motionless, having no power 
to open it, and was found in that position by the 
driver. I was an eyevv^itness to her agony. She 
could neither move nor speak. Afterward she 
seemed very penitent, especially when she knew 
that I was acquainted with all the circumstances. 

The other case was that of a man who attempted 
to get into the corncrib and carry off a sack of 
corn. He was discovered and taken down by the 
driver, having no power of his own, either to go 
forward or to come back. How long he had been 
in that position was not known. 

From Paris Island we went to Cat Island, owned 
by Rev. R. Fuller. Here we preached on week 
nights, the negroes assembling in a vacant house 



2o6 The Gos'pel among the Slaves. 

on the place. On one occasion when Brother 
Coburn preached, the negroes were so much 
pleased with his preaching that they begged him 
to remain for the next day and preach again. 
This he consented to, and at an early hour the 
place was filled. One fact I have often noticed 
is that not only on the cotton but also on the rice 
plantations those negroes who are industrious can 
accomplish their task during the hoeing season by 
the middle of the day, and thus have the afternoon 
to themselves. 

Our next appointment was on St. Helena Island 
at Rev. Mr. Field's, Col. Stapleton's, and Dr. 
Scott's. From there we went to Dathan, owned 
by Dr. B. Sams and Mr. L. Sams, his brother. 
At the different places on Dathan we preached at 
night and catechised the children during the day. 
At Dr. Sams's, however, we preached on a week 
day, the negroes coming out of the fields to assem- 
ble at the appointed time in a large cotton house. 
At the close of the services the smaller negroes 
would remain to be catechised. At Mr. L. Sams's 
we preached at night and had some most attentive 
hearers. Here there was soon erected a very 
comfortable house of worship. 

From Dathan we crossed to Mr. Barnwell's 
place on Coosa Island and preached at night, and 
then crossed over to Lady's Island in a canoe, 
swimming our horses alongside the boat. Here 
we also preached at another of Mr. Sams's places. 

On Beaufort Island, where my family lived, we 



Notes from the Pioneers. 207 

preached at Mr. Josiah Smith's plantation, at the 
Misses ElHott's, and the place now owned by Mr. 
L. Sams. All these appointments were on Sun- 
day. We also preached at Rev. Mr. Barnwell's, 
on Laurel Bay, Broad River. Rev. Mr. Barn- 
well commenced his ministerial career by preach- 
ing to his own blacks and holding prayer meetings 
with them every morning before sunrise. We also 
had an appointment at a place called Myrtle Bush 
in an old brick dwelling. Here we had some re- 
freshing times. Old Palidore, the colored leader, 
was a remarkable man. He never began his 
prayer without calling God's blessing upon the 
missionary w^ho had come so tedious a journey to 
tell them of the Saviour. 

While preaching at this place once, in reference 
to besetting sins, I touched upon a sin then preva- 
lent among them, that of taking cotton out of the 
house and carrying it to the field and bringing it 
back at night saying that they had picked it. 
While speaking a woman fell upon her knees 
and looked very earnestly at me, as if to ques- 
tion: '•'■How did you find that out? " 

One of the most flourishing places on the mis- 
sion was Big Island, owned by Mr. Thomas Cuth- 
bert, who was greatly interested for his people, 
and among the most liberal patrons of the work. 
He very soon built a comfortable church, and al- 
lowed his people to attend week days as well as 
Sundays. On preaching days he would not per- 
mit any of his people to do anything to interfere 
14 



2o8 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

with the hour of service. Every time we visited 
his place he gave up the labor of sixty hands for 
half the day. On this place I baptized thirty at 
one time, twenty-nine by immersion and one, the 
driver, by pouring. Mr. Cuthbert and his little 
daughter, he being a widower, were generally 
present at the church. He would always com- 
mune with his people. 

In going to and fro on my work on the mission, 
I have ridden horseback, in a gig, and often on a 
negro's back. Sometimes it would be in a boat 
pushed through the mud. Often I have had to be 
pushed some distance through the mud to get to 
water to baptize the negroes. 

Our great enemy was superstition, which pre- 
vailed to an alarming extent. Idolatry too entered 
greatly into negro worship. I remember on one 
occasion, while preaching, a woman was so much 
excited she rose and fell at my feet, embracing 
them in her arms. I had a great effort to contend 
with this inclination to man-worship. At another 
place, when leaving, an old woman came after me, 
begging me on my return to bring my " big book " 
with me and find out whether she was an old witch 
or not. I thought she gave me a difficult task to 
perform, but I determined to please her so far as 
I could. Accordingly on my return I read to her 
from the Bible and told her that, according to that, 
she was not an old witch, and advised her not to 
play the witch any longer. She left me perfectly 
satisfied. 



Notes from the Pioneers. 209 

I have already stated the commencement of the 
Cooper River Mission, where I am now laboring. 
The mission embraces two appointments for 
preaching on the western side of the Cooper 
River, one on Back River, which serves the 
plantations on that river and those on the oppo- 
site side. The other appointment is at the church 
near Wappahoola Creek, a branch of the Cooper 
River. I catechise during the week and on Sun- 
day in this part of the mission. This place serves 
the negroes on that creek and several of the plan- 
tations on the western branch of the Cooper River. 
I catechise throughout the mission both during the 
week and on Sundays. In this part of the mission 
there are two church buildings, one of them old 
Cumberland, removed from Charleston. Here we 
have large and attentive congregations. At Cum- 
berland the planters and their families usually at- 
tend, and also commune with the people. On last 
Sunday there were persons present from seven or 
eight different denominations, and five of those de- 
nominations were represented at the Lord's table. 
It was a pleasant sight to behold. 

On the other part of the mission I have three 
appointments and two churches. At Bonnoe's 
Ferry I preach at Dr. Prioleau's, sometimes in a 
negro house and sometimes under a widespread- 
ing oak. I also preach under an old brick shed, 
where the negroes from several of the plantations 
on the eastern branch of the Cooper attend. We 
hope soon to have a church here. Another ap- 



2IO TJie Gospel among the Slaves 

pointment is at a very comfortable church given 
to the mission by Mrs. Simons. This church, 
which is large and commodious, serves the ne- 
groes on both the eastern and western prongs of 
the Cooper River. Mrs. Simons also left a very 
comfortable house as a parsonage. Another ap- 
pointment is on the opposite side of the western 
branch at the plantation of Col. James- Gadsden, 
where we have a large society and a very good 
church building. In all the Cooper River Mission 
has five Sabbath appointments and four churches 
served every other week. At the last Conference 
I reported 649 members in full connection and 318 
catechumens. I would suppose that there were 
from 2,500 to 3,000 negroes within reach of the 
appointments. Our average attendance at each 
place is from 100 to 150. 

Since the establishment of these missions there 
has been a great reformation in the condition of 
the negroes. Whereas before many were lazy, 
immoral, untrustworthy; they are now industrious, 
cheerful, and worthy of confidence. Many of 
these negroes are left in charge of the planta- 
tions during the absence of their masters in the 
summer. On one occasion an old negro told 
Brother Coburn that the gospel (meaning the 
preaching of the missionaries) "had saved more 
rice for massa than all the locks and keys on the 
plantation." It has also happily affected their do- 
mestic relations, joined many of them lawfully, 
made them better husbands and wives, and im- 



Notes from the Pioneej's. 211 

proved their condition in various other respects. 
I have often been awakened in the morning by the 
songs and prayers of the negroes, some of whom 
attended regularly to their family devotions. The 
negroes generally are fond of class meetings and 
love feasts, and are very apt to give some expres- 
sion of approbation when pleased with preaching. 
On the whole they are a very grateful people. 



The Wateree and Black Mingo Missions. 

Bj Rev. Frederick Rush, of the South Carolina Conference. 

At the beginning of the year 1834, ^^ ^^ Con- 
ference held in Charleston, Bishop Emory ap- 
pointed me to form a mission to the people of color 
on the Wateree River. I first consulted the plant- 
ers in the neighborhood of Camden, and obtained 
their permission by certificates to operate on their 
plantations. This was the first missionary effort 
to people of color in that section. Previous to 
this time, however, the question had been consid- 
ably agitated. There was much talk for and 
against it. The overseers generally were opposed 
to it, but the planters seemed to take to the idea. 

Mr. James C. Doby made his house my home 
and stood by me at every point of opposition, also 
Col. W. W. McQuillay and others who were de- 
termined to give the mission a fair trial. In a 
short while I had as much ground as I could oc- 
cupy, and the planters to a unit soon expressed 
their opinions earnestly in favor of the work. 



212 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

Sometime in April, while enlarging my new field, 
I went to Mr. Stratford's, about twelve miles above 
Camden, lo have an interview with him respecting 
his plantation. He soon gave me his consent to 
take it into the work. This was on Thursday or 
Friday, and the rains beginning to fall, then heavy 
floods came and detained me there three or four 
days, during which time I preached three times to 
the family and servants, also to such of the whites 
and blacks as came from the neighboring planta- 
tions. 

During my stay there I conversed with an old 
negro belonging to Mr. Stratford. He was from 
Africa, and totally ignorant of spiritual things. He 
said that in their country they had all heard of the 
devil, but none had ever heard of the other one 
of whom I told him, Jesus the Christ. He took 
my advice and began to call upon the name of the 
Lord for enlightenment and mercy. He was soon 
happily converted. The next morning after this 
happy conversion he went to the field as usual. 
Soon after he commenced his work, he saw his 
master coming into the field. Mr. Stratford was 
then seventy years of age, and up to this time had 
made no effort to get religion. The old African 
dropped his hoe and ran at once to meet his mas- 
ter, telling him in his broken way of the Jesus he 
had found, and entreating him also to seek the 
blessing which Jesus only could give. Mr. Strat- 
ford was melted to tears. He told me afterward 
that he did not wish to be seen crying by his 



Notes from the Pwtieers. 213 

slaves, but that he could not help it. This was the 
start of a great work here. Soon after that affect- 
ing incident in the field, Mr. Stratford joined our 
Church, and I baptized him and his daughter and 
twenty-four of his negroes at one time in his 
house. Not long afterward he was thoroughly 
converted after some hours of the most earnest 
prayer, and like his servant, George, he rejoiced 
greatly in his new-found happiness in Christ. 

I formed a society and preached here for a few 
weeks under a bush arbor. By the end of the 
year we began to worship in our new and com- 
modious chapel, which had, in the meantime, been 
built. I left this place with sixteen white and I be- 
lieve about forty colored members. I do not re- 
member the exact number on the entire mission, 
but I know that I left it in a very sound and pros- 
perous condition, and that the planters generally 
requested its continuance. I was there but one 
year. Brother W. A, Gamewell was my suc- 
cessor. 

The next mission field to which I was appointed 
was the Black Mingo Mission, during the years 
1832-33. This mission had been formed by Broth- 
er Abraham Nettles, and I went to it in the second 
year of its existence. There were thirty planta- 
tions served on the mission, with 9 preaching 
places, 49 white and 586 colored members. That 
year I catechised about seven hundred children. 
I remember also that the contributions from the 
planters more than covered the expenses of the 



214 ^'''^^ Gosf el among the Slaves. 

mission. That year I formed a society at Cedar 
Creek, on the Williamsburg District. It had 35 
whites and over 100 colored members. These 
whites were chiefly among the patrons of the col- 
ored mission, and the societ}^ was principally for 
their benefit, but there were the number of col- 
ored members I have already stated. By the ad- 
vice of Brother Derrick, the presiding elder, they 
were transferred to the Black River Circuit, and 
it is at this time one among the most important so- 
cieties of that circuit. 

The patrons of the Black Mingo Mission were all 
warm friends to the work, especially Mr. William 
Burrows and Mr. J. B. Pressle}^, who were very 
active in its starting, and whose zeal was as warm 
as ever in 1853. 

At Mr. G. Cooper's, one of the patrons, I went 
to see a sick negro who was very old. He told 
me that he was a member of the church, and had 
been going to church as faithfully as he could un- 
til stricken down with the weight of years and 
sickness, but that there was one thing that troub- 
led him a great deal. This was about three Gods 
of whom '^ mossa" (the missionary) had told him. 
He was bothered to know which was the head 
man and to which he should go when asking for 
anything. I began and tried to explain to him as 
clearly as I could why the three persons in the 
Godhead were one. The Lord graciously helped 
his infirmities while I was talking, and he soon 
saw clearly. He was filled with deep joy when he 



Notes froyn the Pioneers. 215 

realized God the Father and Christ the Saviour. 
His cheeks glistened with tears and his counte- 
nance beamed with joy. In a few days he died 
in great triumph. I will add here that his master 
is a very pious and upright man, and that few men 
afford their servants more religious privileges than 
Mr. Cooper. The great darkness and supersti- 
tion of his race stood in the way of this poor old 
man ; the veil was so thick it was long ere he could 
see through it clearly. This circumstance, when 
it became known, did much for the cause of col- 
ored missions, by showing the importance of visit- 
ing and catechising even the grown negroes on 
various religious subjects. I left this mission in a 
prosperous condition, and Brother J. Parker was 
my successor. 

In 1834 I was appointed to the Cheraw Mission. 
From the moment I took hold of the work I real- 
ized that it was not missionary ground, and so, 
through my advice, the Conference discontinued 
it, to devote its time and money in more promising 
fields 

Twenty-two Years in the Mission Fields of 
South Carolina.* 

Bj Rev. Charles Wilson, of the South Carolina Conference. 

I received my first appointment to the mission 
field at the Conference held in Charleston, S. C, 

*Abridged from a manuscript found in the collection of Rev. 
H. A. C. Walker, who proposed at one time to publish a " His- 
tory of Missions to the Blacks." 



2i6 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

in 1834, to the Combahee, Ashepoo, and Pon Pon 
Mission. I was sent as a colaborer with Dr. Boyd, 
who had labored there a part of the previous year 
with Brother Coburn. 

This mission was in the midst of the rice fields, 
then looked upon as " the graveyard of South Car- 
olina." But despite this, I knowingly slept in their 
midst two or three nights of every week the year 
round. During such times, in the sickly season of 
the year, I have known as many as two corpses to 
be carried to the graveyard within hearing of my 
room. Whether this exposure of myself was a 
piece of recklessness on my part or not I do not 
now pretend to say, but this much I can assert: I 
never enjoyed better health.. 

We had at that time but one appointment on 
Combahee River. This was at the plantation of 
Mr. Charles Baring. He was a warm and zealous 
friend of the missionaries. If I am not mistaken, 
it was at this plantation that the blessed work of 
missions to the slaves had its beginning. In addi- 
tion to the negroes on this place, we had those be- 
longing to Capt. N. Heyward, one of the largest 
slaveholders in the state. He had some eight or 
ten plantations, all lying together on the Ashepoo. 
We preached on three plantations : those of Edward 
Webb, J. G. Godfrey, and Hon. Barnwell Rhett. 
At the latter place we also had in attendance the 
negroes from Mr. Thomas Rhett's plantation. On 
the Pon Pon we preached on one of Mr. Baring's 
plantations; on Mrs. Morris's, at that time under 



Notes from the Pioneers. 217 

the direction of Col. Morris; and on Mr. Aiken's, 
on Jehossee Island. In addition to these we had 
one or two small places at which we preached 
occasionally. At the regular appointments we 
preached every Sabbath from two to three sermons. 
A portion of each week was devoted to the work 
of catechising the children and visiting the sick 
and aged. 

We preached in barns, cooper shops, hospitals, 
and other plantation buildings, which were gener- 
ally fitted up in comfortable style. So far as we 
could judge we had the entire confidence of the 
planters, which they evidenced by their kindness 
and liberal hospitality. As to the negroes them- 
selves, their artless expressions of gratitude, their 
rapt attention bestowed upon our sermons touched 
us deeply and made us all the more resolve to be 
faithful. In the early part of this year we added 
another plantation to the mission. This was that 
of Mr. Mason Smith, one mile above the ferry. A 
touching incident is connected with the establish- 
ment of this mission. Going to keep the appoint- 
ment, Mr. Smith met me, telling me how glad he 
v/as to see me, and how gratified at the prospect of 
having regular religious service among his blacks. 
He accompanied me to the house where the meet- 
ing was to be held. We found it well filled with 
a neatly dressed congregation, with countenances 
giving ample proof of their own joy and gratifica- 
tion in the prospect before them. I read a chap- 
ter in the Bible, gave out and sung a hymn, the ne- 



2i3 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

groes all joining in. I then prayed and preached 
a sermon, which I endeavored to make as plain to 
them as possible. 

At the close of the sermon Mr. Smith arose and 
addressed himself with deep emotion to his people. 
He said: "Now, my people, you have heard 
preached to you this day from that blessed book 
[pointing to my Bible] the very truths I have al- 
ways been trying to impress upon your mind ; and 
now I feel perfectly willing to comimit your reli- 
gious instruction and spiritual welfare to these men 
of God. May God be with you!" By this time 
his feelings got so completely the mastery of him 
that he burst into tears and rushed from the room, 
praying God's mercy upon them and upon himself. 
The emotion displayed by their master had an 
electrifying effect upon the negroes, and scarcely 
have I witnessed such a scene as now took place. 
The result was many converts to the Church. And 
never have I known a more submissive and orderly 
plantation in my life as a missionary, nor a Church 
that gave less trouble in the administration of the 
discipline. It was touching to see the love and 
gratitude bestowed upon their minister, and they 
were always desirous of making him some little gift. 

It was the regular custom to catechise the chil- 
dren on this plantation every Monday morning 
about II o'clock. Sometimes the grown people 
working near the house would also come to take 
part. When the catechising was over, the little 
ones would scamper away to the cabins, returning 



Notes from the Pioneers. 219 

in a few minutes laden with their modest gift of 
eggs for the minister. Some would have six, some 
five, some three, and so on. These they would 
spread out on the ground in front of him. On one 
occasion these offerings numbered no less than 
seven dozen. 

In the winter of that year, or in the early spring 
of the year following, we obtained permission to 
preach on the plantation of Mr. Thomas Lowndes. 
He was a near neighbor of Mr. Smith, and owned 
a large number of slaves. Mr. and Mrs. Lowndes 
both appeared deeply interested in our work, and 
not only entertained us hospitably during our stay 
in that section, which was only during the winter 
and spring; but also made every arrangement for 
our comfort at their house in their absence. Our 
congregations here were generally large and our 
preaching to them productive of much good. A 
number soon became members, and adorned their 
professions by a life of consistent piety. Mr. 
Lowndes was a most liberal patron of the mission, 
giving regularly one hundred dollars per annum to 
its support. 

At the time that our missionaries first found their 
way among the larger plantations of lower Caro- 
lina, the Episcopalians had a few churches scat- 
tered about, principally in the upper borders of the 
rice-growing section. These were built mostly, if 
not altogether, for the accommodation of the plant- 
ers and their families. Consequently they were 
only preached in during the winter and early part 



220 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

of the spring. As may be supposed, a sermon 
prepared expressly to the taste of the learned and 
enlightened could be of little use to the profoundly 
ignorant. Hence the coming of the Methodist 
missionaries with their plain and simple story of 
the cross was like the opening of a new world to 
the spiritual mind of the negro. 

During this year, 1835, Hon. R. B. Rhett put 
up at his own expense a comfortable church build- 
ing on his plantation on the Ashepoo. Here we 
preached regularly to his own negroes and to those 
of his brother, Mr. Thomas Rhett, never failing to 
have large and interesting congregations. Through 
the lavish kindness of Hon. Mr. Rhett I and my 
family occupied his residence during his stay in 
Washington. This put me in the center of my 
work, and enabled me to leave home after 8 o'clock 
in the morning, reach the most distant place in my 
charge, catechise the children, visit the sick, and 
return before 2 in the afternoon. On Sabbath 
mornings I was also enabled to hold sunrise prayer 
meetings on the neighboring plantations and to re- 
turn home in time to set out for my regular day's 
preaching. This kind hospitality on the part of 
Mr. Rhett not only rendered my work doubly 
pleasant and satisfactory, but also of increased 
profit to those among whom I labored. I could 
give them far more time and attention and devise 
many ways for their instruction and entertainment. 
I now began to spend an hour of each night of the 
week with those on the place in teaching them the 



JVolcsfrom the Pioneers. 221 

various hymns used by the Church. Having a 
natural ear for music, they soon made rapid prog- 
ress. But these delightful meetings were brought 
to a close by a severe illness that now attacked me, 
and laid me low with hemorrhage of the lungs. 
The devotion of these negroes to me at this period 
was one of the brightest chapters in my missionary 
life. I cannot speak of it too highly. As soon as 
they had finished their daily labors they were at 
my bedside ready to do any act of kindness in their 
power. Though weak from suffering, I neverthe- 
less endeavored to talk to all who came, and many 
scenes that I think God must have loved to witness 
occurred in my sick room. When at last, having 
recovered, though with my health seriously im- 
paired, I came away, I believe it was as a much bet- 
ter Christian and a more useful minister. 

The Hon. Mr. Rhett was, I think, a truly pious 
man. He seemed deeply interested in the spiritual 
welfare of the black population of his country, and 
contributed most liberally every year to the support 
of the mission. 

At the next meeting of the Missionary Board of 
the Conference, I believe in February, 1836, the 
mission was divided, and what was known as 
"The Barings Mission " taken from it and placed 
in charge of Dr. Boyd. Brother A. W. Walker 
and myself were given the other part. This divis- 
ion, I think, lasted only one year. During this 
year Brother Walker and I had fair success both 
in preaching to the negroes and in extending the 



222 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

bounds of the mission. We added to it the plan- 
tations of Mr. James Lowndes, Dr. Fraser, and 
Mrs. J. L. Gibbes. We found easy access to the 
confidence of the planters, and I believe to the 
hearts of the negroes. All the persons whose 
plantations we served contributed more or less to 
the support of the mission. 

At the next meeting of the Missionary Board, in 
1837, the mission was again divided. The part 
embracing the Pon Pon River was taken from the 
Combahee and Ashepoo, and from then until now 
(1856) has been known as the Pon Pon Mission. 
Dr. Boyd was appointed to this work, while I was 
continued on the remaining part, assisted by Brother 
T. S. Daniels. We had on this mission large 
classes of children, which we were very particular 
in catechising. Many of our friends were at this 
time of the opinion that our only hope of thorough 
evangelization of the race lay in the children ; that 
the grown up portion had become so debased in 
sins of almost every kind it was almost, if not quite, 
impossible to change their habits and instill into 
them principles of morality and virtue; but I did 
not share this opinion. While I too had strong 
hope of the children, I yet had as strong faith in 
the almighty power of Christ's gospel to enter every 
heart, no matter how debased, and bring it to the 
salvation of God. I had continual verification of 
this belief in the number of genuine conversions 
among those who had grown gray in vices of the 
lowest order. 



Notes from the Pioneers. 223 

I served the Ashepoo and Combahee Mission 
for five years. It had proved a most interesting 
field of labor, abundantly worthy of the money that 
had been appropriated to its cultivation. In 1839 
I was sent to the Pon Pon Mission, and in order to 
be as centrally located as possible took up my 
abode in the pine lands of Adams' Run. At Wil- 
ton I found that my predecessor, Dr. Boyd, had 
succeeded in getting a very convenient church 
erected. The mission embraced nine plantations, 
with four preaching appointments. 

This vear we had some trouble with the overseer 
of Mrs. Morris's plantation, who tried to do what 
he could to oppose the mission work. Mrs. Morris 
was away at the North at the time ; but when she 
heard of it, she promptly discharged him and urged 
us to go on with our labors among her blacks. 

In 1840 I was returned to the work. During 
this year several plantations were added: Mr. 
Faber's, Mr. Wilkin's, and Mr. King's. By the 
end of the year every plantation from Jacksonboro 
to Edisto Ferry, a distance of twelve miles, on the 
east side of the Pon Pon, was open to missionary 
labor. Being alone, I had no time for rest, but was 
kept constantly going. 

In the spring of 1841 or 1842, Bishop Ives, of the 
Diocese of North Carolina, paid Mr. and Mrs. 
Charles Baring a visit at their family residence on 
Pon Pon. On my first visit to the plantation after 
this distinguished arrival, Mr. Baring took me in 
to get an introduction to the bishop. I found him 
15 



224 '^^^^ Gospel among the Slaves. 

a pleasant companion and an agreeable talker. He 
spoke approvingly of the mission work of the 
Methodist Church among the blacks. As he 
seemed much pleased with the arrangement of 
Bishop Capers' s catechism, I asked him if he 
wouldn't hear me catechise the little blacks. He 
at once consented. 

In the meantime Mrs. Baring had gone out and 
collected the little band and had them all washed 
and brushed up in fine order, and formed in a 
semicircle around the front door. As soon as I 
saw their eyes sparkling with animation, I knew I 
had nothing to fear in their performance, for it 
would have been sadly mortifying to me for them 
to have bungled. Mr. and Mrs. Baring, Mrs. 
Ives, and one or two others sat on the piazza, while 
the bishop and I stood on the steps. I commenced 
and carried them through, and the little fellows 
were really beyond themselves. Their answers 
were prompt, distinct, and correct. 

At the close Mrs. Baring, filled with gratifica- 
tion, cried out to her husband: "Charles! Charles! 
they must have a treat ! Get something for them ! ' ' 
He walked back into the house, which I thought 
was unnoticed by the bishop, who had begun to 
make them a little talk. In the midst of it Mr. 
Baring reappeared with a large bowl of sugar and 
a spoon in his hand. Such another breaking up 
of ranks and charge for the bowl as there was 
then ! The bishop was left to wind up his lecture 
to unlistenin<£ ears. 



Notes from the Pioneers. 225 

I spent four years on the Pon Pon Mission. At 
the end of that time, my health being sadly impaired 
through repeated attacks of fever, I was given an 
assistant, Brother Nathan Bird. Having nov^ more 
leisure, I was again pressed with the old desire to 
add new fields to my work. Through the invita- 
tion of Col. Morris, who had his summer home at 
Edingsville, I now began preaching on Edisto 
Island. I found the fields white to the harvest, and 
the planters almost unanimous in their desire to 
have the work of evangelization pushed among 
their people. One of them, Mr. J. J. Mikell, had 
already gone so far as to erect a comfortable chapel 
on one of his plantations, not knowing whom he 
might get to serve his people. My first preaching 
appointment on this island, the second Sunday in 
October, 1840, was a memorable one tome. Mrs. 
Townsend, a zealous and pious member of the 
Baptist Church, and its most active member on the 
island, invited me, there being no pastor in charge, 
to preach at her church. At the hour appointed I 
reached the building in company with Col. Morris, 
at whose home I was staying, and found a large 
collection of blacks and a considerable number of 
the planters. I next had an invitation from Mr. 
Lee, the Presbyterian minister, to preach in his 
church. I again had a crowded house and spoke 
with much freedom. Mr. Lee, who was a faith- 
ful and zealous minister, had already done much 
efficient work among the blacks on the island. The 
day following I returned home with the deep con- 



226 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

viction that here was a promising door for mission 
work waiting to be opened. The mission was sub- 
sequently established, and I was sent to serve it. 
Six hundred dollars a year for the support of the 
missionary was readily subscribed by Messrs. J. J. 
Mikell, William Seabrook, Maj. Murray, and the 
Messrs. M. A. and S. Seabrook. 

I had on the Edisto Mission, to begin with, six 
preaching places and eleven plantations to serve. 
One of these was Gov. Aiken's place on Jehossee 
Island, which for convenience sake was taken from 
the Pon Pon Mission and attached to the Edisto. 
Unlike Edisto, which is a cotton-growing island, 
Jehossee is mostly a rice plantation and owned en- 
tirely by Gov. Aiken. It is naturally a part of 
Edisto, but has been made into a separate island 
by the opening of a creek by a canal connecting 
the two rivers. 

The mission on Jehossee had from the first been 
one of the most promising in the bounds of the 
Conference. I became acquainted with it in 1834, 
my first year in the mission fields ; and from then to 
the present time, a period of twenty-two years, I 
have preached regularly on the place, with the ex- 
ception of 1837 and 38, when it was in charge of 
Dr. Boyd. 

There is quite a commodious chapel on this 
island, which has been erected by Gov. Aiken as 
a place of worship for his blacks. At first it stood 
in a grove of live oaks on the lawn in front of his 
dwelling ; but his plantation enlarging, it was sub- 



Notes from the Pioneers. 227 

sequently removed to a more central spot. Here 
an addition of twenty feet was made to the build- 
ing, which had become too small to accommodate 
the crowds. A portico has also been attached to 
the front. This chapel has a bell, and a regular 
sexton in attendance. The occasion is rare when 
it is not filled to the door with the blacks, with the 
exception of a small space reserved for the whites. 
In this church alone sixty-two couples of blacks 
have been united by the sacred ties of Christian 
marriage. I recollect to have married here at one 
time five couples. 

From the beginning of our labors on Jehossee 
Island to the commencement of 1844 our course 
was generally onward and prosperous. But at that 
time that terror and destroyer of humanity, cholera, 
made its appearance for the first time on the island. 
Gov. Aiken, then in Washington, was duly notified 
when the disease became epidemic, and, like a man 
true to his responsibilities, hastened away from his 
family and business in Congress to afford whatever 
comfort and assistance might be in his power to 
his suffering and dying people, and for near or 
quite three weeks, regardless of danger, passed his 
time in visiting from hospital to hospital both day 
and night. 

The first case occurred while Brother Bass, who 
was with me, and I were at Conference. But as 
soon as we returned and heard of the situation of 
our charge at that place we went among them, de- 
sirous of rendering any assistance in our power, 



228 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

though not without serious apprehension of danger. 
The first hospital I went into had a corpse lying in 
the front room in preparation for the grave — a 
young man, whose mother was sitting by his side 
and in deep sorrow. I offered what comfort I 
could, prayed with her, and left. In that day's 
round of visits I saw four corpses. From the dis- 
ease's first appearance there were two physicians 
on the place in constant attendance night and day. 
About three hundred of the negroes were removed 
to camp, which was composed of temporary build- 
ings in the woods. Dr. Kinloch was called from 
Charleston. Brother Bass or I was there every 
day almost, rendering whatever assistance we could 
by offering the comforts of religion to the sick and 
dying, and sympathy to afflicted friends over the 
dead. The disease continued about six weeks, in 
which time I think over seventy died. 

One of my most important fields on the Edisto 
Island Mission was the plantation of Mr. J. J. 
Mikell, already referred to. He had a new and 
commodious chapel which was largely attended. I 
soon gathered into the Church at this place a num- 
ber of orderly and highly interesting people. Our 
efforts among them were greatly facilitated by a 
well-ordered system of plantation discipline. 
Though a firm and decided Presbyterian, Mr. 
Mikell nevertheless gave his hearty and unswerv- 
ing support to the Methodist mission. Always, 
when at home, he and his family attended the 
preaching at the negro chapel. He was an exceed- 



Notes from the Pioneers. 229 

ingly liberal man. Unaided he built a mission 
house at a cost of $300 in the village, besides pro- 
viding a winter residence for me nearly all the time 
of my stay. 

On the plantation of Mr. Edward Whaley we 
had another interesting class. He too was a most 
liberal patron of the mission, giving annually one 
hundred dollars. 

My labors for the first two years on the Edisto 
Mission were hard, preaching once a fortnight at 
all my appointments, and catechising the children 
and visiting the sick and aged during the week. I 
have on some occasions preached five sermons and 
rode on horseback forty-five miles all in a day, 
leaving home at 4 o'clock in the morning and re- 
turning at 8 in the evening, sometimes much later. 
But the Lord mercifully supported me through it 
all. At the next Conference I was given an as- 
sistant in Rev. J. L. Shuford. 

In the early part of the year I learned that Mr. 
Thomas Hutcheson owned a small island on the 
west side of the Ashepoo, on which he had about 
two hundred negroes entirely destitute of all re- 
ligious instruction; and though I had never seen 
him, nor had he ever heard my name, yet I became 
anxious to pay his island a visit, and wrote him a 
letter informing him that I had heard- that he owned 
a large number of negroes remote from all religious 
privileges, and that I would be happy to visit his 
island in the character of a Methodist missionary 
to the blacks, and referred him to Col. Morris, 



230 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

Gov. Aiken, and other gentlemen with whom he 
was acquainted for particulars respecting my object, 
and immediately received an answer saying that he 
would be happy to see me; and, accordingly, ar- 
rangements were made, and on the appointed day, 
sometime in May, a boat was sent for me. Upon 
reaching the shore I found a horse and servant 
waiting to take me up to his dwelling. I found 
him polite and glad to see me, particularly on the 
business on which I had come: desirous that his 
negroes should have the gospel preached to them. 
I told him that we would preach to them regularly 
once a fortnight if he would send a boat for us, 
with which he seemed delighted. 

After preaching to a large congregation in a barn, 
himself and overseer and family in the number, we 
parted, all gratified with the prospect, but none 
more so than the negroes, who seemed to look as 
if a sort of jubilee was beginning to dawn on 
Hutcheson's Island. 

I asked an intelligent-looking old black man how 
long he had lived on that island and what they had 
done in that time for religious instruction. He re- 
plied that he had been living there for forty years, 
and that nearly all the people I saw had been born 
and raised there ; that no minister of any denomi- 
nation had ever been on the island to his knowledge 
before ; that nearly all the people that had been in 
the meeting-house that day had never heard a 
white man preach before ; and that they had been 
wholly dependent upon each other for all the re- 



Notes from the Pioneers. 231 

ligious instruction they had ever gotten. This 
statement I believed to be altogether true from my 
knowledge of the surrounding country and the lo- 
cality of the island. My heart was filled with grati- 
tude and thankfulness to God for the great privi- 
lege of being an honored instrument in his hand of 
carrying the gospel to those who had never heard 
it before, although they were in my own native land. 

After a year's preaching, at the first opportunity 
given them, one hundred and eleven came forward, 
a larger number, I am disposed to think, than ever 
has been on an ordinary occasion received into the 
Church at one time within the South Carolina Con- 
ference. They all, with but few exceptions, proved 
true to their vows. 

But this mission had a sad ending, for Mr. 
Hutcheson, not long after this, dying with brain 
fever, the estate fell into the hands of his mother, 
who was a Roman Catholic. I called to see her, 
and when she learned that it was her son's wish 
that the mission should continue, she expressed her 
willingness to have it so. But in a few days there- 
after she had a visit from her priest, which put an 
end to the work in that part of the field. 

In 1847 my assistant was removed to the Beau- 
fort Mission, and Brother R. P. Franks appointed 
my junior. Other plantations were added. In 
1850 Brother Banks labored with me. In the be- 
ginning of the succeeding year he was removed 
and Brother H. A. Bass appointed in his place. 
And from the beginning to the present time we 



232 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

have held firmly the confidence of all concerned. 
Our labors have doubtless proved a great blessing 
to the inhabitants of Edisto Island. 



Nine Years of Plantation Mission Work on 
THE Santee Mission and Elsewhere. 

Bv Rev. Samuel Leard, of the South Carolina Conference. 

In the year 1836 I began my mission work among 
the blacks on the Manchester Mission. I had my 
headquarters for a time at Manchester, which stood 
about four miles from the Wateree River on the 
Sumter side. It was the central point of a large 
population, both white and black. Very few of the 
whites belonged to the Methodist Church, being 
for the most part Baptists and Episcopalians. But 
there was a large colored membership collected, 
mainly by my predecessor, Rev. Sherwood Owens. 
We had for our preaching place in Manchester an 
old frame church building, which had served as a 
church for many years. There we had a large 
colored society, and a still larger number of the 
little negroes under catechetical instruction. 

The prominent planters of the neighborhood 
were generally patrons of the mission. Among 
these were Mrs. Belsar, Mrs. Moore, Judge Rich- 
ardson, and many others. 

The children were catechised during the week 
at their plantation homes, and generally made fine 
progress. 




(=32) 



REV. SAMUEL LEARD, 
Of the South Carolina Conference. 



Notes from the Pioneers. 233 

From this central point our work extended above 
to Statesburg, and down the river until it finally 
reached Murray's Ferry, on the Santee River, and 
some sixty miles above the city of Charleston. 
Going down the river from Manchester, we soon 
reached Broughton's, a very public place ; and be- 
low him Mr. Mat James, Col. Richard Richard- 
son, Mrs. Richardson, Col. Peter Richardson (the 
father of the present Governor of South Carolina), 
Dr. Boyd, and Col. David DuBose, all of them 
wealthy and refined gentlemen. They owned 
large numbers of slaves, and were sincerely de- 
sirous to see them Christianized and improved in 
their moral character. 

The writer could furnish the reader with an en- 
taining and instructive volume were he to enter mi- 
nutely into their system of plantation government ; 
their care of the young slaves, as well as of the old ; 
the houses built for their comfort; the nurses pro- 
vided for the sick and helpless (there was on large 
plantations a sick house or hospital, and a physi- 
cian employed by the year to minister to the sick 
and aged); the watchful care of masters and mis- 
tresses over not only the health but the moral and 
spiritual interests of the slaves. Add to this the 
earnest desire of the planters to have their slaves 
Christianized, their willingness to pay for mission- 
ary labor, their personal attention to the religious 
meetings, and we have a picture of Christian phi- 
lanthropy on the one hand, and of appreciative 
obedience and satisfaction on the other, such as 



234 '^^^^ Gospel among the Slaves. 

the world has rarely witnessed under similar cir- 
cumstances. 

Near the center of our mission field, and some 
little distance from the river plantations, was old 
St. Paul's M. E. Church and camp ground, be- 
longing to the Santee Circuit. Manchester Mis- 
sion had no direct connection with this church and 
neighborhood, and yet, upon the principle of nat- 
ural and religious attraction, the missionary found 
here such a home and welcome and spiritual en- 
joyment as no words can describe. Our mission 
work extended some fifteen or twenty miles below 
St. Paul's, including many plantations, and at least 
two Methodist church buildings and congrega- 
tions of white and colored members of the M. E. 
Church. 

For two years I spent a part of my time in this 
delightful Methodist community, preaching to 
white and colored, and catechising large classes 
of children. 

A charming and beautiful portion of my work 
lay on the southern side of the Santee along the 
river swamps, in the Parish of St. John's Berkely, 
Charleston District, and was called the " Santee 
Mission." It would be difficult to describe that 
beautiful section of country as it was then, with 
its refined and elegant citizens, brave men, cul- 
tured women, its contented servants, fruitful fields, 
and comfortable homes. Alas ! the terrible rav- 
ages of the civil war left it a desolate waste. 

The whole country on both sides of the, river 



Notes from the Pionce?-s. 235 

was opened to the missionary, and with a thankful 
and prayful heart he entered it to sow the seed, 
trusting in the God of the harvest to grant a gra- 
cious yield. For four years I served this mission, 
from 1836 to 1840, and count them now as among 
the most useful and satisfactory of my whole min- 
isterial life. I was not ashamed of the work. I 
felt that I had as much my Master's service to 
perform here as though I toiled in the most prom- 
ising mission field of China or India. I gave my 
heart, time, and what talents I possessed to the 
work, and God abundantly blessed me. In 1839 
I had 740 colored members on the mission. In 
addition to the children, the preaching and cate- 
chetical instruction extended to hundreds of adults 
outside of the Methodist Church, and perhaps to 
quite as many children. 

The planters and overseers, as a general rule 
(many of whom were godly men), welcomed the 
missionary to their homes and plantations; and no 
one had a better opportunity of studying the char- 
acter and relations of the master to the servant, 
and of the servant to the master, than he. The 
preaching of the gospel was not a new thing to 
the colored people on the Santee. Rev. Sher- 
wood Owens had preceded me, and had gained 
the confidence of masters and servants in the full- 
est degree. In general terms the gospel ministry 
was a great boon to masses of them. It was a 
great blessing to them to have their attention di- 
rected to the higher interests of the soul and the 



236 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

hope of immortality and eternal life. They were 
not disturbed in mind by nice points of doctrines 
or ceremonial parts of Christianity, and hence 
were prepared to listen to the exposition of the ex- 
perimental and practical parts of religion. They 
were not concerned with the questions of what 
shall we eat or drink or the thought of houses to live 
in or the care of the sick or even of the clothing 
they should wear. All these were provided for 
them by their owners, and while they were required 
to work, it was not excessive labor, and they had 
no fears of suffering when old age with its infirmi- 
ties should come upon them. Cruelty of the owners 
in any shape was the exception and not the rule. I 
assert, weighing my words carefully, and speaking 
from what I know and saw, that no class of poor 
people in the world were better provided for, and 
none had fewer cares than the slaves on the large 
plantations in the lower part of South Carolina 
prior to and during the war. And while I speak 
for this section there are others, many others, who 
can truthfully testify these same things for other 
sections of the country. The time has come for 
these facts to be clearly established that the true 
story may go down to our children and to our chil- 
dren's children. 

As the years went on I grew more and more de- 
voted to my work. God's blessing seemed con- 
stantly to rest upon it. Especially in the neigh- 
borhood of St. Paul's, Rehoboth, and St. Mark's 
Churches did I enjoy the richest measure of sue- 



Notes from the Pioneers. 237 

cess. Large classes of the young of both sexes 
were taught the entire catechism prepared for their 
use by the late Bishop Capers. They also com- 
mitted to memory numerous hymns and select pas- 
sages of scripture. Having fine voices generally, 
their singing was unsurpassed in sweetness and 
power. The older ones would catch up the re- 
frain, and their voices being of unsurpassed depth 
and power, they would make the fields, churches, 
and woods ring with the sacred songs of Zion. 

On one occasion I remember catechising a class 
of fifty or sixty youths and children under the large 
oak, which stood in front of old St. Mark's, on a 
Sunday, and in the presence of my presiding elder, 
the late Rev. Hartwell Spain. Happening to glance 
around at him during the height of the services, 
my heart was thrilled to see him bathed in tears. 
His emotions in gazing upon that scene of the 
humble blacks being taught the way of life and 
hearing their tuneful voices raised in loud praise 
to the Maker of all had almost overpowered him. 
Surely God and the angels took note of that 
scene. 

The spirit of religion soon spread abroad in the 
whole community, and harmony of feeling between 
the white and colored people was unsurpassed by 
anything I have ever seen. I doubt if I ever shall 
see its like again. The masters and mistresses ex- 
ercised the greatest kindness and consideration 
toward their servants, who in turn were faithful, 

obedient, and devoted. 
16 



238 The Gosfel among the Slaves. 

In 1843 I served a very important mission field 
not far from Georgetown, S. C, called North and 
South Santee Mission. It included the large rice 
plantations on either side of the two branches of 
the Santee River and the large delta between them. 
This was a region of immense wealth, great fertil- 
ity of soil, and of extensive planting interests. 
Here thousands of slaves cultivated the fields of 
rice. I have a lasting impression of the culture 
and refinement of the planters and their families, 
of the care they took of their slaves, of the pro- 
tection furnished to them against imposition and 
cruelty, and the almost perfect system of planta- 
tion regulations. This last included even the ne- 
gro's church going, and was most particular as to 
the hospital service and the marital relations of the 
sexes. I remained but one year on this very in- 
viting but laborious field of mission work, and left 
it with regret, despite the arduous labors entailed. 

The mission fields in the low country of South 
Carolina were largely self-sustaining, the contribu- 
tions of the planters covering largely the appropri- 
ations made by the Missionary Society. To the 
planters of Lower Carolina great praise is due for 
their liberal support of our domestic missions. 

Years of various itinerant service, on stations, 
districts, and circuits succeeded, until, having fin- 
ished two years on the Black Swamp Circuit, in 
the Beaufort District, I was sent by the bishop to 
organize and serve a mission field called the Bluff- 
ton Mission, including the mainland and islands 



Notes f7'om the Pioneers. 239 

in the neighborhood of the May and New Rivers, 
CalHboga Sound, and Broad River. This inter- 
esting field of mission labor was occupied until 
the battle of Fort Walker, on Hilton Head Island, 
in 1861 . The lovely village of Bluffton was aban- 
doned, and finally the whole coast yielded to the 
arms of the United States. 

In addition to my work on the regular missions 
I constantly had large numbers of the colored peo- 
ple under my charge in the various cities and towns 
of South Carolina. In Charleston, in the years 
1846 and 1855, when pastor of the Cumberland 
Church, I had some 1,200 colored people under 
my pastoral care. There was not a night in 
the week that we did not have some Church or 
society meeting in their behalf in the large base- 
ment story of the church. On Sundays hundreds 
of them occupied the large galleries in the body of 
the church morning, afternoon, and night, for 
there were three services every Sabbath. Besides, 
their monthly love feasts and sacraments were duly 
administered. I never failed to visit them in their 
own houses during the week or when they were 
sick or dying. I leave the reader to imagine the 
amount of labor involved in a pastorate of twelve 
hundred souls, in addition to the cares and labors 
bestowed on two hundred white members. As 
can readily be surmised, it was no child's play. 

In closing this article I cannot forbear to remark 
that from the moment my work began among them 
in 1836 to the present time — when an old man 



240 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

worn in my Master's service I await the voice that 
is to call me hence — I have had the negroes' moral 
and spiritual welfare sincerely at heart. I have 
known them all my life. I have mingled with 
them, talked to them, wept over them, prayed with 
and for them. I have studied every phase of their 
character from that of the tattooed African fresh 
from his native land to the aged and dying Chris- 
tian, telling forth in clear, unbroken EngHsh the 
preciousness of a crucified Saviour. I have re- 
joiced with them when one of their number reached 
a plane of sincere usefulness and ability. I have 
felt for them when tricked by unprincipled politi- 
cians to serve their own corrupt ends. I know their 
needs and their weaknesses, while I, at the same 
time, bear wilHng testimony to the faithfulness and 
integrity of the many who have come directly under 
my notice, and I pray God, in his own good time, to 
bring them to that state or condition in life which, 
in the wise fulfillment of his purpose, he deems 
the best and fittest for their good. 



The Pedee and Upper Santee Mission.* 

By Rev. S. D. Lanej, of the South Carolina Conference. 

In 1838 I was stationed on what was then called 
the Pedee Mission. This mission was afterward 



*Abridged from the original manuscripts among the papers 
of Rev. H. A. C. Walker. The writing bears the date of May 
10, 1856. 



Notes from the Pioneers. 241 

merged into the Liberty Chapel Mission, near 
Mars Bluff. 

The year I labored on this work it extended from 
Mars Bluff near to Society Hall on the Great Pe- 
dee. But the most important, or at least the most 
interesting, portion was that which lay on Lynch's 
Creek in Darlington District, and covered the 
plantation of Moses Sanders, Esq., who then re- 
sided in Darlington villajje. He was one of the 
mission's strongest supporters, but unfortunately 
died at the close of the year. This was doubtless 
the cause of the mission being discontinued for a 
time, though Mr. Sanders left a liberal provision 
for it in his will. 

Captain Gibson was also a warm patron of the 
mission, as was Maj. Cannon, both worthy mem- 
bers of the M. E. Church, South. 

In the early part of the year I made a visit to 
John McLenehen, Esq., who cordially invited me 
to take his plantation into my work, which I did. 
Mr. McLenehen was a highly respected member 
of the Presbyterian Church, as was also his accom- 
plished lady, but both were warm supporters of the 
mission, and were constantly contributing to the 
comfort of the missionary. At this appointment I 
formed a good society and had a most interesting 
class of catechumens among the children. Gen. 
Williams, of Society Hill, and the Hon. Mr. Erwin, 
of Darlington, and others whose names I cannot 
now recall, were also patrons of the mission. 

At almost every appointment I had a class of 



242 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

catechumens. These afforded me the rarest delight 
in the catechising. One class I recall with special 
pleasure. This was at Springville, the residence 
of Maj. Cannon. On one occasion I invited the 
Rev. Ira L. Potter, then in charge of the Darling- 
ton District, to go out to this appointment and wit- 
ness the exercises. He listened with the greatest 
concern, and was greatly affected after hearing the 
children answer the questions with such intelligence 
and promptness, as well as sing the doxology and 
stanzas of various other hymns without a jar. 
There was in this class one little fellow of about 
ten or twelve years of age that I specially recall 
for his quick ways and readiness of thought. 

Great respect was given the missionary on this 
mission. Especially did the blacks look up to him 
with great trust and veneration. Our strongest 
foe was superstition, which is always the bane of 
the ignorant. Especially did I find it to predomi- 
nate in this race. But always I found the blessed 
gospel of Christ with the power, if rightly compre- 
hended, to dispel this state of feeling from the 
mind. In a good many instances I saw fruit 
through the course of this year. 

Whether, upon the whole, this was a mission 
proper, is very questionable. Very nearly all the 
appointments were accessible to the preachers of 
the circuit. The mission money was paid into 
their hands and reported to the credit of the cir- 
cuit, while I think a majority of its patrons were 
members of the circuit charge. 



Notes from the Pioneers. 243 

There was at this time in the vicinity of Mars 
Bluff a very corrupt state of society. I was fre- 
quently interrupted in my services with the blacks. 
On one occasion a great blustering man threatened 
to whip me for reproving his wife for boisterous 
talking in the congregation. I had thought at the 
time that it was one of the negroes. But I met 
him coolly, and so, after swearing around the house 
for awhile, he left. I really felt during the prog- 
ress of the year 1838 that the neighborhood of 
Mars Bluff was a modern Sodom. But thank 
heaven! they were not all depraved. There were 
some very worthy citizens, and some who were 
pious. Other difficulties attended my work 
during my connection with this mission, but 
there were none so formidable as at Mars Bluff. 
But even there I had many seasons of refreshing 
in the colored congregation, and left them at the 
end of the year in a healthy condition. The 
next year they were transferred to the Darlington 
Circuit. 

It was at the close of this year that an incident 
transpired that showed to what an extent the influ- 
ence of the missionary extended. It happened 
while I was on my way to the up country in com.- 
pany with Rev. Ira L. Potter. As we passed along 
through a portion of the Wateree Mission, then 
served by Brother Whatcoat A. Gamewell, we dis- 
covered on a river plantation a large group of little 
negroes performing some light work by the road- 
side. The thought struck me that they were 



244 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

Brother Gamewell's little negroes. As we came 
near to them I observed to Brother Potter that I 
would test the matter and exhibit to him a season 
of interest. When we came within speaking dis- 
tance I began the catechising : ' ' Who made you ? ' ' 
I asked. "God!" immediately shouted many 
voices. As the question was answered they 
dropped their work to a man and eagerly rushed 
after us ; and for nearly a half mile they trotted along 
after us, answering questions until I could proceed 
no further from memory. I mention this instance 
to show what interest even the children took in this 
work of grace, and how well they were trained by 
the worthy missionary. 

During the Conference year of 1840 I served the 
Upper Santee Mission, which lay on the south side 
of the Santee River in the bounds of the Charles- 
ton District, but in the order of the Conference in 
the Columbia District. Brother H. Spain was the 
presiding elder, but from some providential causes 
made no visit to it during the year. I was left 
wholly to myself, the Lord being with me. It was 
a year of great affliction to me, physical and mental. 
My mind was gloomy the greater part of the year. 
Much sickness prevailed, and many deaths oc- 
curred both among the whites and blacks. I vis- 
ited and prayed with the sick and dying until I was 
compelled to abandon my post, driven away by the 
poisonous malaria. But I think the Lord helped 
me to sow some seed eternity will show. I preached 
and catechised at four different places each Sab- 



Notes from the Pioneers. 245 

bath. Maj. Porcher was one of the warm sup- 
porters of the mission. 

Another important appointment embraced the 
people belonging to the " Santee Canal Company," 
called " Big Camp." The entire work lay up and 
down the river between Pineville and Vane's Ferry, 
embracing the settlements of Mrs. Marion, Mrs. 
Gaillard, James Gaillard, Peter Gaillard, T. W. 
Porcher, and others. I have never before or since 
encountered beings in human shape so far removed 
from civilization and Christianity as the blacks on 
this mission, and yet I found their owners intelli- 
gent and refined. It was with the utmost difficulty 
that I could understand the language of these ne- 
groes. I noticed one peculiarity of expression 
which I never found among others. They inva- 
riably used the masculine gender. If it was a fe- 
male, it made no difference: she was called " he." 
There were but two classes of the white population 
here — namely, the owners and the overseers — con- 
sequently the negroes did not mingle with a third 
class of whites as at Mars Bluff, and this may ac- 
count, in a great measure, for their being under 
the influence of manners entirely their own. But 
they labored less and were better provided for here 
than at any other place under my observation. It 
was on this work that I became acquainted with 
that truly pious man of God, Rev. Joseph War- 
nock, who himself became a missionary, and died 
not long since in the city of Savannah, Ga. 

This mission was discontinued at the close of 



246 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

the year, and I think the ground is now mostly oc- 
cupied by the Protestant Episcopal Church, as I 
noticed in Bishop Daves' s late report that there 
were several of my old places embraced. 



My Year on the Beaufort Mission. 

Bj Rev. A. M. Chreitzoerg, of the South Carolina Conference. 

In the year 1843, which was the fifth of my itin- 
erancy, I was sent to preach the gospel to the slaves 
on the Beaufort Mission. I was only the junior on 
the work, that noble old veteran in the cause, Rev. 
Thomas E. Ledbetter, being the senior. I felt 
honored in having been assigned to this important 
field of labor thus early in my ministry, as I knew 
our Conference was careful always as to whom 
they intrusted with a work so delicate in many 
ways. 

Both Brother Ledbetter and myself had our 
families with us, he in his own house at Beaufort 
and I in a hired one at the same place. 

Our work lay in and around Beaufort, princi- 
pally around it, among the plantations situated upon 
Lady's Island, Paris Island, Dawfuskie, and others 
not necessary to mention. These were reached 
from the mainland by boats which the planters 
kindly placed at our service. We could cross and 
recross at any time we pleased. 

The plantations served belonged to some of the 
most prominent families in the state: the Smiths, 



Notes from the Pioneers. 247 

Barn wells, Cuthberts, Elliotts, etc. With but one 
or two exceptions the planters were all sincerely in 
sympathy with the work of evangelization among 
their slaves. They threw no hinderance in our 
way, but put forth every effort to interest the 
negroes in the religious services. In many in- 
stances they and their families were members of 
other Churches, yet frequently attended our ap- 
pointments. 

During the week myself and colleague visited 
the different plantations, catechising the children. 
In some instances there were as many as two or 
three hundred of these children, all kept together 
under the care of an elderly female, and orders 
were given to have them all assembled whenever 
the preacher came on his catechising rounds. In 
no instance that I can recall were these children 
kept away at work or for other purposes during 
the occasions of the missionary's visit; but, on the 
other hand, were always assembled, generally 
smiling and clean for their instruction. 

On Sundays we would preach twice, thrice, and 
even four times a day, to old and young alike. It 
was no holiday time, this work of a plantation 
missionary, but one that required the utmost con- 
centration of effort, the most unflagging spirit of 
zeal, and, in some instances, a self-sacrifice that 
was heroic. Especially was this true of those 
whose labors lay among the slaves of the rice plan- 
tations. Here their lives were constantly in jeop- 
ardy from the deadly miasmatic exhalations of the 



248 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

rice fields; but thanks to the watchful care of a 
beneficent Providence, and to the retreats afforded 
by the pine lands, but few of them died. As to 
the slaves themselves they seemed to thrive better 
in these localities, owing to their similarity in tem- 
perature and topographical features to their own 
country. 

But despite these drawbacks and the many hard- 
ships and discouragements with which I had often 
to meet, my year on the mission was pleasant and 
of much satisfaction to me. There were many 
charming families. In the home of one of these 
especially were many happy hours passed, delight- 
ful to look back upon even at this distant day. 
This was the family of Capt. John Joiner Smith, 
himself one of nature' s truest noblemen . His plan- 
tation was known as "Old Fort," and was situated 
on a bend of the river about five miles distant from 
Beaufort, and in plain view of the city. The place 
was so called from the remains of a structure, com- 
posed of shells and lime, supposed to have been 
built by the Spaniards. 

Capt. Smith and his wife were Episcopalians, 
but were both earnestly devoted to the Methodist 
mission, giving liberally of their substance to its 
support. They took a personal interest in each 
slave's spiritual condition, constantly inquiring 
thereinto with the devotedness of the missionary 
himself. 

At this plantation there was a most comfortable 
church, which its black members took great delight 



Notes from the Pioneers. 249 

and pride in adorning for their missionary's com- 
ing, with such simple material as the forest gave 
them. Around the upright posts of the neat pine 
pulpit their zealous hands would twine the beauti- 
ful drapery of the long gray moss, while graceful 
festoons of the same moss would hang in front 
with cords and tassels attached, the latter formed 
by the bur of the pine. In the rear swept the 
waters of the river, while in a grove that surround- 
ed the building was the burial ground of the ne- 
groes, kept ever clean and neat. Here year after 
year, ever since the coming of that noble old pi- 
oneer, George W. Moore, the founder of the mis- 
sion in 1833, the slave had been taught of Jesus 
and the resurrection; had been pointed to the 
Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world. 

The service would begin with the rising of the 
missionary in the pulpit, followed by the simulta- 
neous rising of the entire congregation, who would 
repeat after him line by line the Apostles' Creed. 
Then came explanatory questions, which were 
readily answered. The Commandments would 
next be repeated, and then the reading of a portion 
of Scripture, which was always carefully explained. 
After that a hymn was sung, a prayer offered, and 
the sermon began, followed all the way through by 
the closest attention and constantly responded to 
by a nod of the head, a gentle clapping together of 
the hands, or a deep " Amen ! " according as their 
religious fervor moved them. 

I found them a grateful and faithful people, much 



250 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

devoted to their old spiritual instructors, and con- 
stantly inquiring after them. Especially had 
Brother Moore won their deepest affection. I 
shall never forget a touching incident that occurred 
illustrative of this. In one of the charges was 
Fortune, a fine specimen of his race: honest, in- 
telligent, and one of the most consistent members 
of his Church. I could scarcely believe that he had 
once been one of the worst negroes on the planta- 
tion, and, on questioning him as to his conversion, 
was deeply moved by the expression of his face 
and the tone of his voice as he replied: " Yes, sir; 
all that you have heard is true. I was what they 
have told you, even worse than that. I never can 
forget how Mr. Moore, when I was a wicked sin- 
ner, walked his horse six or seven miles to talk to 
me all the way about my soul. I would walk this 
day twenty miles to hear him preach once more !" 
That walking six or seven miles with the earnestly 
devoted missionary, who showed that he set a 
precious price upon this soul, a negro's soul though 
it was, moved Fortune as nothing in his stormy life 
had ever done before, and resulted in his conver- 
sion. Through just such soul-burning devotion as 
this, illustrated again and again in the life of the 
plantation missionary, has many a darkened and 
benighted soul been brought into the light and lib- 
erty of the gospel. 

Another duty of the missionary, in addition to 
catechising the children and preaching to the 
adults, was to visit the sick and aged at their cabins. 



Notes from the Pioneers 251 

In this way he reached a surer and firmer spot in 
the negro heart than in almost any other; for by 
these visits he made it plain to the occupant of the 
humble cabin that he was not ashamed to enter it, 
or to grasp him by his rough and toil-worn hand 
as a friend and brother; or, kneeling upon the 
floor beside the rude bed, to offer fervent petition 
to God in his behalf. In very few instances did it 
fail to take the simple, rugged heart and bind it 
firmly to the cross. 

It was on one of these visits that I first became 
acquainted with old Friday. He was a genuine 
African, not so long from his native wilds and 
greegree worship that the shadows of them did 
not still hover about him. But Friday had that 
in his heart now that shed light upon all the dark 
places. He was so happy in his religion, so in- 
tensely grateful to the man who had first brought 
him to the light — our dear and departed Brother 
Coburn — that he came near to drifting back toward 
the dangerous shoals of his old idol worship by 
setting up unto himself an idol in the flesh. At one 
time, if Brother Coburn' s name was even men- 
tioned in his presence, new life seemed to possess 
him. He would roll his sightless eyes around and 
exclaim: "Way he dey? [Where is he?] Way 
he dey? Let me see um ! " 

Friday was fully eighty years old at the time I 
met him, but his mind was still vivid with memo- 
ries of his native land. In the clear, peaceful light 
of the gospel that had come upon him, he was a 



252 The Gosf el among the Slaves. 

living illustration of the power of the word of Jesus 
Christ to tame and make as new creatures his sav- 
age race. All Friday's remembrances of having 
had any form of religion in his native land was that 
of prostrating himself when the sun or moon arose, 
and in crying: "Allah II Allah!" One conver- 
sation I had with him deserves to be recorded, as 
showing the truly benighted condition of these 
poor creatures when first brought from their native 
wilds. On entering his cabin I said to him: "Well, 
Friday, how' dye?" 

" T'anke, my mausa, I dey bless de Jesus. 
Mausa, I jis wake up; I been da dream. I see 
one all white. He say: 'Friday, you b'long to 
me.' I say: 'Lord, what you sabe me for, po' 
sinner?' He say: 'Neber mine, I sabe you.' He 
say: 'Friday, you lub me?' I say: 'Yes, my 
Lord.' He say: ' Berry well den, bime by I come 
tek you home.' O my mausa," turning his sight- 
less eyes full upon me, from which the tears 
coursed down his dusky cheeks, and extending 
his arm upward, " I want to go home ! I weary, I 
weary to get home ! " 

I said to him: "But you must patiently wait the 
Lord's time, Friday." 

"Trute, my mausa, trute ! De Lord no reddy 
yet. I 'tay here lillie bit longer." 

I asked him if they knew anything about God in 
his country. 

"Dey no t'ink 'pon um; dey t'ink dey mek 
demself." 



JVotes from the Pioneers. 353 

" How long were you in this country before you 
heard about Jesus, Friday?" 

" Long, long enough, my mausa! " 
*' Who first talked to you about him? " 
A smile of joy inexpressible radiated his with- 
ered old face as he cried: "Aha, Mass Coburn ! 
Mass Coburn ! " repeating over and over again the 
name of the missionary, as though but to call its 
S3dlables was a delight that thrilled his soul. 

Friday rarely attended preaching, his age and 
infirmities confining him closely to the house. 
When he did, it was an occasion that made its im- 
pression upon all. How vividly I recall one of 
these occasions ! I had already begun the services 
when, happening to glance up, I saw the old man 
come tottering in, leaning upon the arm of his son. 
On entering the church he paused for a moment, 
clasped his old and trembling hands together and 
looked upward with a countenance beaming with 
devout thanksgiving. Never have I seen a look 
upon a human face that so thrilled me with the 
intense fervor of its devotion. So grateful was 
he to be once more within the house of God that 
his withered old face shone as though the light 
streaming from the very foot of Calvary gleamed 
upon it. 

At the close of the service I lingered to talk with 
him. How his grateful expressions toward the 
missionaries and their work among his people 
cheered my heart, giving it a fresh impetus in its 
labors ! I could not refrain from asking him if he 
17 



254 'I^^^^ Gosfel among the Slaves. 

was sorry he had been brought to this country. You 
should have seen his countenance as he replied: 
" Ough, mausa, buckra country too much better 
dan nigger country ! Too much better ! too much 
better ! Nigger country you can't go from here to 
nex' place by yerse'f ; nigger meet you in de path; 
he got knife, he kille you. All you got do in dis 
country is worrack [work]. Friday got good 
mausa, good missus; he ole. Friday do not'ing, 
mausa tek care o' him; anyt'ing Friday want he 
get um. Berry well den, I jis de wait till de good 
Massa way up top senna for me." 

It was not uncommon often to be sent for to go 
to see dying negroes. I thank my Master that I 
never once turned a deaf ear to any of these calls. 
Once I performed the burial rite over one of these 
humble slaves at night. The memory lingers viv- 
idly to this day. 

I left home about sunset, on a calm and pleasant 
evening, and took my way along the high bluff of 
the river. The distance was four or five miles, so 
that it was dark ere I arrived at the plantation. 
Just before the dead man's door was the corpse, 
already in its narrow house. Beside it sat the 
widow, and to her I addressed myself, bidding her 
trust in God, " the Husband of the widow and the 
Father of the fatherless." His fellow-servants 
were seated around, the deep-drawn sigh showing 
their sorrow for the departed, their sympathy with 
the bereaved. I addressed them on the uncertainty 
of life, the necessity of making preparation for 



Notes from the Pioneers. 255 

death — in a word, I preached Jesus and the resur- 
rection, and by the glimmering of the lightwood 
fire was the burial service read, and the body com- 
mitted to the dust. 

It was after 9 o'clock as I took my way home- 
ward, and passed through the dark avenue of oaks, 
trusting to the instinct of my horse to find the way, 
illumined momentarily by the fitful flash of the 
firefly. It was a time for serious thought, for a 
communion with the heart and with God. I asked 
myself if I had tried in every way to fulfill my duty 
since I had come to these perishing souls to teach 
them the way, the truth, and the life? Sweet in- 
deed was the whisper that came in answer to that 
question. Forgotten now were all the pains and 
toils of the way. The true missionary glow was 
burning wdthin. A peace unutterable filled my 
soul as to myself I murmured the lines: 

Labor is rest and pain is sweet, 
If thou, mj God, art there. 

I felt that God had indeed been with me; that 
he had blessed my labors, and I felt the same 
sweet assurance many and many times afterward 
on the other mission to which I was sent in 1855 : 
Black River and Pedee, from which I was re- 
moved to the upper country of Carolina owang to 
the debilitating attacks of fever engendered by 
the rice fields. Here, after several months in the 
purer air of the Piedmont country, I was fully re- 
covered. 



256 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

The Congaree Mission, with Other Points 
AND Items.* 

Bj Rev. William Martin, of the South Carolina Conference. 

At the Conference that met in Fayetteville, N. 
C, in December, 1845, Bishop Andrew presiding, 
I was appointed " a missionary to the plantations 
of the Congaree River." 

To this appointment my heart said "Amen!" 
God had the past year, in Wilmington, given me 
great success in my ministrations to my colored 
charge, and I felt he would again. 

Yes, my heart was enlisted in this work of giving 
the gospel to our servants at the South, and I be- 
gan with health renewed, and, thank God, I gave 
to this work six years of the prime of my life and 
ministry. It was no sinecure. I knew it was hard 
work and poor pay — in fact, so poor that all our 
own resources and the income of a school my wife 
opened were found necessary for our support. But 
the work paid in many ways besides money: it was 
a great work, a momentous work, a special one for 
the South. If we did not do it, no one would or 
could. No one should think himself too good for 
it. I for one did not. 

This year my mission lay along the Congaree 
River, reaching down the river from Columbia 
about twenty miles, and extending to the sand 
hills on either side. We had on the mission one 

* It is but just to the memory of Mr. Martin to state that this 
article is compiled from two or three chapters of reminiscences 
written by him at different periods for the press. 




(2S6) 



REV. WILLIAM MARTIN, D.D., 
Of the South Carolina Conference. 



JVotes from the Pioneers. 257 

regular church building, and one used both as 
a church and a scho.olhouse. At the other ap- 
pointments we occupied large barns or gin houses, 
and sometimes in the summer months for preach- 
ing and catechising we sought the shade of an um- 
brageous oak or gum tree. I usually preached 
at three plantations, generally some miles apart, 
on every Sunday, catechising after the regular 
preaching service. I also during the week cate- 
chised the children and visited the sick in their 
humble cabins, where in sickness and death I fre- 
quently witnessed evidences of faith and hope that 
greatly confirmed my confidence in the power of 
our blessed Christianity to comfort and sustain its 
believers. 

This mission had been previously served by 
Brother Samuel Townsend, its first missionary, 
who, at the Conference of 1844, reported 300 
Church members and 262 children catechised. 
In 1845, when I came to the charge, there had 
been a small increase both in members and in cat- 
echumens. There were eight regular appoint- 
ments in all, and two or three plantations where 
I preached occasionally, thus reaching a popula- 
tion of from 1,500 to 2,000 souls. 

One of my principal appointments was at Mill 
Creek Church, one of the oldest in the state, and 
where many stirring scenes in early South Caro- 
lina Methodism had been witnessed. It was for- 
merly what was known as a free church, one not 
suppHed regularly, and had been taken into the 



258 The Gospel mnong the Slaves. 

Tnission by my predecessor, Brother Townsend. 
It was now one of my regular appointments, at 
which I preached one Sabbath in every three. 
Both white and. black worshiped at Mill Creek 
Church. At one common altar master and slave 
took the sacrament; and what was very noticeable, 
there was no irreverent hurrying away at its close, 
as is often the case. 

But with the morning's preaching, singing, cat- 
echising, and administering the sacrament, the 
missionary's day of labor was but half over, for 
there were the afternoon services, with other min- 
isterial duties intervening. Often I have traveled 
a dozen miles through the snow or sunshine, 
whichever the case might be, preached from two 
to three sermons, held a love feast or class meet- 
ing, catechised the children, administered the 
communion or the rite of baptism, and married 
a couple, all in one day. 

Intimately associated with the religious interests 
of the servants was the missionary's influence over 
the masters. So I endeavored, by the grace of 
my Master, to be all things to all men, to the 
learned and the unlearned, to the bond and the 
free. As I prayed for the soul of the slave, so did 
I pray for the soul of the planter ; and two of the 
wealthiest and most influential of these (with their 
families) Maj. Lykes and Gen. Hopkins, joined 
our missionary Church at Mill Creek. 

One of the most prominent patrons of our mis- 
sion was Thomas Heath, Esq. He had a place of 



Notes from the Pioneers. 259 

worship for his slaves on his plantation, and in 
every way contributed to their spiritual welfare. 
Another patron was Col. Wade Hampton. His 
preaching place was adjacent to the negro quar- 
ters. In every way the situation was novel and 
pleasing. An avenue of large water oaks led from 
the quarters to the place of worship, forming an 
impervious shade to the fiercest noonday sun. It 
was but one of the many appliances for the com- 
fort of the blacks of this large and admirably 
conducted plantation. The room stood directly 
over the foaming waters of the creek, that in 
front spread out into a pond, and in the rear 
went piping off into a dancing cascade. It was 
neatly and comfortably fitted up with pulpit and 
seats. 

At this mission, as at the others, there were 
many living, sneaking examples of what the gos- 
pel could do, and had done, for this race. Usu- 
ally before the sermon, there was held a class 
meeting. How rich was the Christian experience 
of many of these old slaves ! How gratefully they 
testified to their blessings ! How fervently they 
thanked God for the comforts he had given them, 
for their kind master and gentle mistress; but 
above all for the blessed gospel that had been 
brought to their very cabin doors ! 

One of these ripe Christians was old Daniel, 
whose hope seemed ever near fruition. Like his 
namesake, he was a man of faith and prayer; his 
example ever a practical comment on the good the 



26o The Gospel among the Slaves. 

missions had done among his people on that plan- 
tation at least. 

After the class meeting the sermon was preached. 
Then came the catechising of the children. This 
was done occasionally on the Sabbath, that others 
beside those in the regular week day classes might 
receive the benefit of this mode of instruction. 

On one occasion as I had finished catechising, 
and each member of the class had, as usual, come 
forward to shake hands with me, a venerable old 
negro handed me a letter which he requested me 
to read to the congregation. The proprietor of 
the plantation had sent a part of his force a few 
years before to colonize a plantation in Mississip- 
pi. This was a letter from one of the people out 
there, telling of their comforts and privileges in 
that distant country, but especially giving vent, in 
strong terms, to their gratitude that there they had 
been followed by the ministry of the gospel. 
There too they had a missionary to administer 
to them the word of life, and many had been 
awakened and converted. This was what was 
known as the Lake Washington Mission, and 
which afterward became one of the most flour- 
ishing in that section of country. 

Six years in all I spent on the Congaree Mis- 
sion, when I left it to take other work, and Broth- 
er Nicholas Talley was appointed to succeed me, 
which he did, following up the work most faith- 
fully until it was broken up by the war. 

Besides this work on the Congaree Mission, I 



Notes from the Pioneers. 261 

had other work among the negroes in the cities. 
I preached to large congregations of them in Wil- 
mington, Charleston, Columbia, and other Caro- 
lina cities. The galleries were always given up to 
them, and long before the regular missions to them 
began, in 1828, they were considered a part and 
parcel of the Church. 

It cannot be refuted that from the earliest ap- 
pearance of Methodism in the South the negro has 
shared largely in the labors and care of her minis- 
try. The Minutes make the first mention of mem- 
bers in Charleston in 1786, 35 white and 23 colored ; 
and when I was stationed in Charleston, with 
Revs. William M. Kennedy and George F. Pierce, 
in 1834, we had under our pastoral care 3,249 col- 
ored members. All the Methodist churches, as 
previously estimated, were built with reference to 
the accommodation of the colored people. They 
sat under the same roof and enjoyed the same 
preaching with the white people ; they communed 
at the same altars ; they were served by the same 
hands, and drank in remembrance of the crucified 
One from the same cup. They shared in the same 
class meetings and love feasts ; they were married 
and baptized by the same ministers, and thousands 
upon thousands of them were brought to a saving 
knowledge of the truth, and were made happy 
partakers of the gospel hope of salvation. 

When I was admitted into the South Carolina 
Conference (in February, 1828), there were in the 
limits of the Conference, which then included a 



262 The Gosfel among the Slaves. 

large portion of North Carolina, all of South Car- 
olina, Georgia, Florida, and a part of Alabama, 
18,460 colored members. This year (1828), as is 
well known, was the year in which began the sys- 
tematic operations among the slaves on the planta- 
tions. The Minutes show how well and rapidly 
the work spread, how faithfully and zealously 
those who had it in charge labored. 

At the end of the Conference year 1845, at 
which time I was sent to the work, Georgia and 
Florida having been organized into a separate 
Conference, there was in the South Carolina Con- 
ference 25 ministers devoted to the colored mis- 
sions alone, supported by collections taken up 
within the Conference bounds, and the colored 
membership had increased to 41,074. In i860 we 
had in the South Carolina Conference alone a 
colored membership of 49,774. This year there 
were 30 ministers employed in this great work, 
and the South Carolina Conference raised for do- 
mestic colored missions $24,463.54. For several 
years previous to the war the South Carolina Con- 
ference raised and expended annually for the reli- 
gious advancement of the negroes sums varying 
from $20,000 to $32,000, and employed from 25 
to 35 of her ministers in preaching to them the 
glorious gospel of the blessed God. 

I was frequently sent for to marry or to bury ne- 
groes who had at different times been under my 
charge. As to the latter sad rite, I had for years 
standing engagements with many of them, noticea- 



Notes from the Pioneers. 263 

bly among these Ned Arthur and Sancho Cooper, 
of Columbia. I happened to be in Charleston 
when Ned Arthur died, in 1869. He had been a 
member of the Methodist Church for more than 
fifty years, and a preacher and leader among his 
people for over forty years, honored and respected 
by all who knew him — a faithful servant and a sin- 
cere Christian. He had long since engaged me to 
preach his funeral, and when dying charged his 
family to send for me and keep his body until I 
came. They telegraphed for me, and I left 
Charleston at 9 p.m., came home, buried the ven- 
erable man, and hastened back to Charleston the 
next night to keep my engagements in that city. 
I remember a little instance that happened in con- 
nection with this burial. On my return I met on 
the train a Northern gentleman of considerable 
influence, who expressed great surprise when he 
learned of the errand from which I was returning. 
He confessed to much astonishment at a feeling 
of this kind existing between a white man and a 
negro at the South. 

Sancho Cooper was a pure-blooded African,. 
He was for many years the faithful ser\^ant of the 
celebrated Thomas Cooper, LL.D., second Pres- 
ident of the South Carolina College. Sancho had 
a standing engagement with me for more than 
twenty-five years to "preach his funeral." At 
the time of his death he was ninety-five years old, 
had been a blameless member of the Methodist 
Church about seventy years, and a class leader 



264 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

for more than sixty years, and throughout had the 
confidence of all, black and white. For some 
years previous to his death he was confined to his 
comfortable cabin, his old master, Dr. Cooper, 
having left in his will a sufficient living for him in 
his old age. He, however, still kept his class and 
prayer meetings, his members coming to him at 
his own house. 

I have been moved to this digression from the 
regular course of my narrative, and that I might 
give a consecutive view of my personal observa- 
tion and experience of the efforts Southern Meth- 
odism has been making for the past fifty-four years 
for the enlightenment, elevation, and salvation of 
*' the brother in black." There appears to have 
been recently a great awakening in some quarters, 
both North and South, of interest in behalf of the 
colored people in our midst. I am glad to see 
this, but let us not, in our zeal for his future 
good, forget what our fathers did for him under 
the most trying circumstances of the past; how 
for him they toiled and suffered and some of them 
died; how, when every other white man fled from 
those miasmatic regions, the humble missionary 
held on his weary way, teaching the living how to 
live, and the dying how to die, while trusting in 
the merits of the blood of the Lamb shed for the 
redemption of the whole human race. 



Notes from the Pioneers. 265 

Sea Island Slave Mission Work. 

Bj Rev. M. L. Banks, of the South Carolina Conference. 

My first experience as a missionary to the slaves 
was on the Edisto, Jehossee, and Fenwick Mis- 
sion. It was in 1849. Rev. Charles Wilson was 
my senior and, as I remember, the founder of the 
mission. He was the negro's friend. He sacri- 
ficed much to show him the way of life, and he 
succeeded. About twenty years of his ministerial 
life was spent on this mission. It must have been 
a severe trial to himself and family to be isolated 
from congenial companionship during these long 
years. What but devotion to the negro's spiritual 
welfare could have reconciled him to this? He 
was there for near two decades, and likely would 
have ended his life there but for the war and its 
results. In those days we had a number of preach- 
ers who could adapt themselves to the comprehen- 
sion of the negro in preaching. Of these Charles 
Wilson was in the lead. But he never talked non- 
sense. He never let himself down to the negro's 
way of talking, but strove to lift him up to his own. 
I once asked Brother Wilson to give me some les- 
sons in the art of preaching to the negroes. His 
reply was characteristic. " In preaching to ne- 
groes," said he, " I always preach the best I can." 
He thought that any sort of talk was not good 
enough for them. 

Our work that year^covered three islands. Fen- 
wick was difficult of access, with a wide river or 
sound lying between it and Edisto. Crossing over 



266 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

and back in a small boat was not without its perils. 
On Fenwick we were furnished with a pony to ride 
to our appointments. This sturdy little fellow was 
so used to mosquitoes that he showed little signs 
of discomfort, though his neck was covered with 
them as a network. 

Jehossee was separated from Edisto by a small 
creek spanned by a bridge. That, to me, was the 
most interesting part of the work. Ex-Governor 
Aiken lived there, and was sole owner of the is- 
land. He owned hundreds of negroes, and few 
slaves ever had a kinder master. His negro quar- 
ters looked like a little village, and much whiter 
and cleaner than many villages I have seen. 
The large building he had erected for his people 
to worship in was generally crowded at the hour 
of preaching. The worshipers appeared in decent 
apparel, and not a few were dressed like ladies 
and gentlemen. What a privilege it was to hear 
them sing! I have sat in the pulpit and listened 
until I would weep for joy. 

Mr. Mikel, another planter, also had a nice 
church erected for his negroes in a pretty spot. 
He and his family were in the habit of worshiping 
with them. They would kneel at the chancel 
where their slaves did, and receive the holy com- 
munion at the hands of the same minister. 

The Savannah River Mission lay in sight of the 
city of Savannah, Ga. Rev. Reddick Bunch and 
I, both young men, received an appointment to 
this work in 185 1. Bunch was a young minister of 



Notes from the Pioneers. 26*] 

good mind, of fine social qualities, and deeply in- 
terested in his work. We boarded together with 
" Uncle Tom Hardee," as he was familiarly called, 
and I promised myself much pleasure in associa- 
ting with him. But alas ! he died at the beginning 
of our first year's work. We carried his body to 
Purysburg, some distance up the river, and laid it 
away until the resurrection morn. The work was 
quite enough for two men, but after Brother 
Bunch's death I had it all to do. In serving 
the mission I had to travel in the saddle on rice 
field banks. These banks were ofttimes so soft 
that even a small horse with a light rider was in 
danger of going down to stay. What must it have 
been for a large man like Brother Charles Betts, 
for instance, who was my presiding elder? He 
tried it once or twice, however, and got through 
manfully, but always afterward preferred a route 
of firmer footing. 

Judge Huger, a distinguished jurist, was a prom- 
inent patron of the Savannah River Mission. He 
was deeply interested in the work of the mission- 
ary among his people. He talked to me fully of 
his own spiritual well-being. I trust that, ere he 
was laid away in the narrow house appointed for 
all living, he found firm footing upon the " Rock 
of Ages." 

In 1854 -f ^^^ s^'^^ ^o ^^^ Waccamaw Mission 

with Rev. William Carson as my colaborer. An 

intimate friendship sprung up between us which 

has lasted to the present. Having a family, he 

18 



268 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

occupied a part of the parsonage, and Rev. J. L, 
Belin, a superannuate, with whom I boarded, the 
other part. The mission extended from a httle 
above the parsonage down the Waccamaw on the 
right and the seacoast on the left to a point oppo- 
site Georgetown across Winyaw Bay. Rev. J. A. 
Minick spent many years on this mission, and in 
1855 went to his reward. His works praise him. 
To the faithful work he did the mission owed much 
of its prosperity. His remains and those of Broth- 
er Belin lie in sight of the parsonage. 

Of the planters who patronized the mission I 
have very kind remembrances, of one in particular, 
a Mr. Alston. Whenever the missionary wanted 
to visit Georgetown, his boat and oarsmen were at 
his service. They could come and go when they 
pleased. The distance across the beautiful Win- 
yaw Bay to town was, I think, three miles. Joe 
Hemingway, one of the overseers, had a Metho- 
dist family, and was a Methodist himself. I al- 
ways felt at home in his family, where I knew a 
hospitable welcome awaited me. 

Combahee was my last mission, but by no means 
the least. It was first-class, but I dreaded it. My 
predecessor had had trouble. Could I hope to 
still the troubled waters and bring about a reign 
of peace? I was leaving one of the best circuits 
in the Conference, and I wondered why I was 
changed. When I found out the reason, I could not 
but feel the compliment. The planters had been 
careless on this mission. They had provided no 



Notes from the Pioneers. 269 

proper dwelling house for the missionary and his 
family. I found them in a muttering mood over 
the constant change in preachers. When I spoke 
to them of the poor accommodations, they seemed 
for the first time to realize their neglect in that di- 
rection, and to be ashamed of it. A comfortable 
home for the missionary was soon secured, and 
there was no change of preachers for five years. 
Indeed I stayed on the work as long as the Yan- 
kee gunboats would allow me to stay. 

I must here speak of the overseers on this work. 
They and their families were, in the aggregate, 
respectable members of society, and connected 
with the Methodist Church. They lived in com- 
fort, and their tables were spread with tempting 
viands. The missionary felt at home among them. 
I had a very warm attachment for many of them, 
and parted from them with a pang of regret. 

Abram Thomas stood at the head of his class as 
an overseer. He was independent, having a fine 
plantation of his own in Southwestern Georgia. 
His salary was $3,000 a year, and besides this his 
table was furnished, free of charge, with every- 
thing the plantation afforded. It took a consider- 
ation of this sort to induce him to leave his com- 
fortable home in Georgia. I esteemed Stephen 
Boineau as a Christian gentleman. He was cour- 
teous, refined, intelligent, and pious. His wife 
was his equal in every respect. The children 
were orderly and obedient. A better-regulated 
household I have seldom, if ever, visited. Sib 



270 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

Jones, Boineau's brother-in-law, was the wag of 
Combahee. He was pleasant, playful, and witty. 
If the missionary was ever troubled with the blues, 
let him visit Sib and they were sure to vanish. 

Of the Combahee planters I have very pleasant 
recollections. They valued the missionary not only 
as the pastor of their slaves, but as a companion 
of themselves and families. They welcomed him 
to their houses, and were not afraid of their fami- 
lies coming in contact with him. It was not so 
everywhere. They lived in princely style. The 
dishes on their tables were of the best quality and 
in great variety. I declined nothing but the wines 
and liquors, and it was a trial to do that. To hold 
to my temperance principles under a perfect bat- 
tery of both masculine and feminine hospitality 
was not the easiest thing in the world to do. 

Charles Lowndes, James B. Heyward, and Dan- 
iel Blake had very neat chapels on their planta- 
tions, where not only their negroes but themselve's 
and their families worshiped. Charles Lowndes 
lived the lowest down on the mission. His house 
was the home of the missionary whenever he chose 
to make it so. He was a noble, upright, consci- 
entious man, extremely courteous to those in an 
inferior situation. James B. Heyward lived near 
the center of the mission. His was an attractive 
home. He had a large estate, but was a plain 
man, simple in manner, courteous in deportment, 
fine-looking, and of dignified bearing. He gave 
liberally to the support of the mission. 



Notes from the Pioneers. 271 

Daniel Blake's plantation lay in the extreme up- 
per end of our mission. He, as I remember, was 
an Englishman by birth. He was a noble speci- 
men of humanity. He despised affectation and 
looked with perfect contempt upon all snobbery. 
There was no man more in sympathy with the 
work of the South Carolina Conference among 
the rice fields and cotton plantations of the coun- 
try than he. Though a member of the Episcopal 
Church, I think he was about half Methodist. At 
the handsome church building in sight of his resi- 
dence, where I preached to the negroes of his 
place, he was a regular attendant and a close lis- 
tener. When he had company on preaching day 
at the church, he proposed to the company that 
they all go out to the preaching, and they did it. 
He once said to me that he wanted the missionary 
on Combahee not only to preach to his people, 
but to visit his family. He lived up to that senti- 
ment. His house was the missionary's home. 

Mr. Blake was a most humane master, and his 
negroes were devoted to him. I think they would 
have fought for him to the death had the occasion 
for it arisen. I remember preaching to his people 
on the atonement and used an illustration which 
they interpreted to mean that their master had 
sold them to a neighbor. The excitement was 
tremendous. They ran to him from all parts of 
the quarter to know if such was the case. He ex- 
plained, and they were content. There was, in 
their eye, no other master like the one they had. 



272 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

I think there was not a great deal of clear money 
made on Mr. Blake's plantation. He fed and 
clothed his negroes too well and worked them too 
moderately to admit of that. Among the devout 
masters who will be saved in heaven with their 
pious slaves I feel safe in counting Daniel Blake, 
the missionaries' friend and the negroes' bene- 
factor. 

We had no protracted meetings on negro mis- 
sions. Our preaching was confined chiefly to the 
Sabbath. Revivals, as conducted among the 
whites, were not practicable. At the stated ap- 
pointment, however, we had, now and then, sea- 
sons of refreshing. Penitential tears and tears of 
joy would at times fall like raindrops. A great 
drawback to the preaching of the missionary was 
dullness of comprehension on the part of his hear- 
ers. Such was to be expected in view of the 
extreme ignorance prevailing. Intelligence was 
mainly confined to house servants. But thank 
God, the experience and practice of religion was 
not confined to the intelligent. "The wayfaring 
man, though a fool" may know enough of the 
way of life to walk therein. It would not be put- 
ting it too strong to say that thousands of unlet- 
tered negroes on our missions were led into the 
light of God's countenance by the faithful preach- 
ing of their pastors. 

I touch now upon the rice field negro's type of 
piety. Rev. Mr. W is credited with the re- 
mark that the negro of that time was sadly defi- 



Notes fi'oni the Pioneers. 273 

cient in the three cardinal virtues of veracity, 
chastity, and honesty. In these particulars, how- 
ever, there was marked improvement under the 
power of the gospel as preached by the Methodist 
missionary. The marriage relation generally had 
come to be held sacred, and but few cases of ly- 
ing and stealing came to the knowledge of the 
missionary. Still, in our estimate of the religion 
of our parishioners, there was need of the exer- 
cise of considerable charit}^ Of course their 
standard of Christian morality could not be ex- 
pected to measure up to that of their more enlight- 
ened white neighbors. Where little is given, little 
is required. In judging the debased and ignorant, 
the principle is not always adhered to as it should 
be. As the negro race advances in knowledge, 
both mental and spiritual, we must begin, of 
course, to measure them by a stricter standard. As 
they grow in intelligence and in the earnest desire 
for moral and spiritual elevation, so will the effi- 
cacy of the gospel to touch and meet every need 
of their case increase with corresponding force. 
We must measure one's piety by his knowledge 
of God's truth. If we do this for the negro, he 
will compare favorably with any other class or 
race of equal knowledge of the Bible. For him 
Christianity has done much. It found him igno- 
rant, debased, scarcely above the brute order in 
mental and spiritual understanding. It left him 
as a new creature in Christ Jesus. What may it 
not yet do for him ? 



274 ^'^^ Gospel among the Slaves. 

Memorials of the Pioneers. 

Rev. Daniel G. McDaniel was born in George- 
town, S. C, on February 15, 1791 ; was converted 
at the Light Street Church, Baltimore, Md., when 
a youth of nineteen, and entered the ministry in the 
South Carolina Conference in 182 1. He served 
various circuits and missions from that year on to 
1854, ^" which year he died while serving the 
Wateree Mission for his seventh year. He was a 
true man, upright, conscientious, and devoted to 
duty and to the doctrines of his Church. No man 
in South Carolina or elsewhere did more for the 
evangelization of the colored race than he. One 
of the finest tributes to his memory is the monu- 
ment erected almost solely by the contributions of 
the negroes, to whom he had been as an apostle of 
light. 

Mr. McDaniel was one of four Methodist preach- 
ers who married the four daughters of Michael 
Schenck, of Lincolnton, N. C. Judge David 
Schenck, of Greensboro, N. C, is the grandson 
of Michael Schenck. In recording some of his 
early recollections of his kinsman. Judge Schenck 
says: 

I frequently accompanied Mr. McDaniel on his " rounds " to 
the plantations on the stated days for catechising the children. 

The little negroes were drawn up in line, and I was very much 
astonished at the ease and rapidity with which they answered 
the simple questions of the catechism. They knew all the es- 
sential truths of salvation, and seemed to appreciate them. A 
prayer, a word of exhortation and kindness ended the visit, and 
the dear old gentleman never turned to leave Avithout being fol- 
lowed by the " God bless you " from the old " mauma," who had 



JSfotes from tht Pioneers. 275 

the children in charge. If anj were sick, they were visited and 
comforted, and the aged received a word of sympathy and en- 
couragement. 

The Sabbath services were so novel and interesting that I 
was greatly impressed with them. The singing was so full of 
"the Spirit" that the singers often reached a sort of rhapsody 
or joyful exhilaration that gave peculiar interest to the tune and 
the hymn. The prayers, rude in language and boisterous in 
tone, were still full of faith and earnest supplication. 

The idiom and vocabulary and provincialisms of this class of 
people in that region were so peculiar that it was quite difficult 
at times to understand the language or to comprehend its mean- 
ing. At times it was laughable, and at othei-s it impressed the 
hearer with its force and vigor and directness. The politeness 
of the negro to a gentleman never failed to elicit respect and a 
kindly feeling for them. 

Mr. McDaniel continued on the Wateree Mission until his 
death, and was buried at Camden, where a monument was 
erected over his grave, the result of small contributions by the 
slaves, supplemented by their masters. He died like a patriaixh 
and was "gathered to his fathers," lamented, respected, and 
loved by all who knew him. 

Mr. McDaniel was a soldier in 181 2 in the second war with 
Great Britain, and was in the battle for the defense of Baltimore. 
I remember to have heard him relate the anecdote that while 
the troops were drawn up in line awaiting the attack a tall sol- 
dier who stood immediately behind him said humorously, 
"Dan, you get behind here, and I will stand in front so the balls 
can't hit you," and stepped forward and made the change, laugh- 
ing at " Dan's " little stature and remarking how safe he was 
now. And Mr. McDaniel said that at that moment a bullet 
struck his comrade dead in his tracks, and he himself was 
spared. Mr. McDaniel's widow drew a pension from the 
United States Government as long as she lived. 

In the nature of the case, many of the memorials 
of missionary work, written by the friends of the 
missionaries, must go over the same ground and 
employ almost the same language. In endeavor- 



276 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

ing to avoid this defect we have grouped together 
such incidents as commend themselves to our no- 
tice, giving here and there only a complete article 
from the pen of a sympathizing friend. One of 
these articles is entitled: " Recollections of a Plan- 
tation Missionary's Daughter," by Miss Isabel D. 
Martin, of Columbia, S. C; 

Memory carries me back to the time when, earlj in the 
morning, through heat and cold, sunshine and rain, I used to see 
a plantation missionary set out in his buggy and go to preach 
the gospel to the slaves on the surrounding plantations ; and my 
joy would be full as I would be invited to take my seat in the 
buggy and go with the missionary on his rounds. 

Sometimes we would cross the Congaree with its tumbling 
shoals, its yellow water, and its never-ceasing voice as it goes 
murmuring to the sea. Again our way would take us through 
dense pine forests, where the solemn old long-leaved pines 
waved their stately limbs, or we would drive through long ave- 
nues of oaks draped with long, drooping gray moss. Then 
sometimes, pleasantest of all, we would drive right through 
Mill Creek, and while we stopped to let our good old horse get 
his draught, I would count the shining pebbles at the bottom of 
the wine-colored stream, or, childlike, clap my little hands at 
the minnows as they went flitting by. 

When we reached the plantation gate, the cry would be heard 
on all sides, "Preacher's comin'! preacher's comin'!" and from 
every side we could see the little negroes gathering. At least 
twenty of the grinning, ebony-faced little creatures would spring 
forward to open the gate for us and to escort the preacher's 
buggy up to the "catechising place." Others of the larger 
children would hurry to deposit the little brothers and sistei's 
they were nursing with the old " maumas " at the hospital; while 
others, again, impressed with a sense of the decorum of the oc- 
casion, would go through the ceremony of hand and face wash- 
ing ere presenting themselves before the preacher. 

At last silence and perfect order reigned. A line would be 
drawn under the shade of some spreading old oak and the cate- 



Notes from the Pioneers. 277 

chising begin. The class was rarelj under fifty in number, 
ranging in age from the toddling wee thing of three and four 
to bojs and girls of fourteen and fifteen, clad generally in the 
most airy of garments. I cannot now recall one instance of bad 
conduct, nor do I remember once having seen one of the class 
deprived of the handshake frorh the preacher, an honor most 
highly prized by them all, and never denied except in cases of 
extreme naughtiness. 

The preacher would then carry them through Capers's Cate- 
chism, the Creed, and Commandments, give them a little — very 
little — talk, then sing a simple hymn, and afterward, with bared 
head, kneel upon the ground, and, with all these slave children 
clustering around him, together they would repeat: "Our 
Father who art in heaven." 

Since that time I have seen God worshiped in many ways. I 
have knelt with the multitude in the grandeur of a great cathe- 
dral, where the "dim religious light" came softly stealing 
through the pictured glass and the rich-toned organ melted the 
heart to thoughts of prayer. I have listened to the gospel in 
the midst of a crowd of gray-uniformed men, whose next orders 
might be a summons to death. I have heard the words of truth 
proclaimed on the top of a lofty mountain, where we seemed 
" to see God in every cloud, and hear him in the wind." I have 
mingled with the throng around the holy altar in the midst of a 
wide-spreading forest, where every breeze that swept by seemed 
to say: "The groves were God's first temples!" I have sat in 
the rustic church amid the humble country worshipers, sun- 
burned with toil and hardened with care, when I have said to my- 
self: "God is here worshiped in spirit and in truth." Yet now 
as I look back, it seems to me I have never been in circum- 
stances so pleasing to God and his holy angels, or seen worship 
so welcome to them as when I saw that man of God teaching 
the little negro slaves to say: "Our Father." 

The catechism lesson being over, the preacher would inquire 
for the sick. If any were very sick or too old to leave their 
cabins, he would be taken to them to minister of spiritual things ; 
and sometimes, though, little child as I was, I knew it not, I was 
very near the gate of heaven. Often I have seen the mission- 
ary's face radiant with the light of the throne as he came from 
these ministrations beside the bed of the dying Christian slave. 



278 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

As we were leaving a pleasing scene would occur, pleasing to 
me at least, for then the old " maumas " would come from their 
cabins with two or three eggs apiece, or the children with old 
birds' nests, sassafras roots, blackberries, and other simple treas- 
ures, to show their love of the missionary by these humble of- 
ferings to his little daughter. These scenes would recur at one 
plantation and another until the whole of a long summer morn- 
ing would be exhausted, and so would pass the week away. 

When Sunday morning would come, the grown negroes, who 
were at work in the fields during the week days, would assemble 
for preaching in neat, clean garments. Sometimes this would be 
in an upper room over the ginhouse, nicely arranged with pulpit 
and benches, or again in a pleasant litile church built by the 
liberal and pious slave owners. Long before we reached the 
plantation gates we could hear the untutoi-ed voices of the as- 
sembled worshipers in songs of praise. Then would follow the 
simple service of the Methodist ritual and a sermon gloriously 
beautiful in its gospel simplicity, followed by the repeating of 
the Commandments and Creed by the whole congregation, occa- 
sionally by the administration of the holy commvinion, and very 
often a marriage and baptism. 

One calm spring morning, beautiful and clear, the missionary 
and his little daughter, after leaving the preaching place and 
driving a few miles, stopped at the residence of a planter, whose 
name is now a household word, a part of our glorious chapter in 
the world's history — Wade Hampton. 

The estate was called "Millwood," and who that has once 
partaken of its princely hospitality can ever forget it.'' 

After dinner we found the daughters and two little grand- 
daughters of the planter ready to accompanv us to the planta- 
tion. After the sermon was over the marriage ceremony of two 
of the house servants was performed, and then the solemn voice 
of the minister said, " Let those to be baptized be brought for- 
ward," when a throng came forth, and in front of the pulpit 
stood in a semicircle, the parents bringing twenty-two little 
black babies to receive the holy rite. Each of these babies was 
dressed in a pretty white dress, and the sleeves looped up with 
white ribbons. Both ribbons and dresses had been given and 
the dresses made by the hands of the youngest daughter of the 
planter. The noble Christian girl has long since gone to her re- 



JVotes from the Pioneers. 279 

ward, and I have often thought of the joyful meetings there 
must have been when, in the high courts of heaven, she met 
some ransomed soul that had gone to glory from her father's 
plantation. 

When I hear the imputation cast — which is, alas ! too often the 
case — that our fathers and grandfathers were sinners above all 
others, because they owned and cared for their slaves, which 
were theirs through no fault of their own ; when again I hear it 
asserted that on the Southern plantation nothing was heard but 
the sound of the lash and the groan of the oppressed, I cannot 
but think on some of these things which 1 have herein narrated, 
which I have seen with my own eyes and know to be true 
— things to which others can bear witness, which are but an in- 
finitesimal part of that grand work that had its origin and its 
carrying out in hearts as noble and as humane as ever received 
the Deity's impress. And when I think how one Church alone 
—for others there were engaged in this work — the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, South, gave of her time, her talent, her treas- 
ure the best that she had, to teach these slaves the way to the 
one great and universal Father, how I pray God to hasten the 
day when she shall receive the full measui-e of her due! 

How I wish I could take every reader of this article to a 
church that has been erected to take the place of one burned 
down by the soldiers of the United States army on the 17th of 
February, 1865; for near by I could show them a monumental 
shaft, plain and uncostly, without ornamental design or sculp- 
tured device of any description. And yet that shaft is a more 
glorious monument than Greek or Roman fancy ever pictured, 
for it bears this simple inscription : 

To the memory 

of 

William Capers, D.D., 

One of the Bishops of the M. E. Church, 

South, 
The Founder of Missions to the Slaves. 

We have given a large space to the movement in 
the South Carohna and Georgia Conferences, not 
because these Conferences stood alone in the prog- 



28o The Gospel among the Slaves. 

ress of this great work, but because the record of 
the work in these old Conferences was fairly typical 
of the labors of missionaries in other states of the 
South. The peculiar conditions that distinguished 
African slavery in South Carolina did not exist to 
the same extent in any of the Southern states. 
There were not as many large plantations occupied 
by slaves alone, or by the owners and the slaves, 
without any environments of social order in white 
communities. 

But there were a few extensive plantations, and 
the number was gradually increasing in Alabama, 
Mississippi, and Louisiana, in which the absence 
of a gospel service was a want felt, acknowledged, 
and ultimately supplied by the generosity of the 
planters on the one hand and the heroism of the 
missionaries on the other. 

The Rev. Edwin G. Cook contributes a brief 
account of the work in Vicksburg, Miss. : 

I here give my recollections of religious services among the 
colored people in our community (Vicksburg, Miss.), where I 
lived for many years before the war: 

I of course refer to such work as was under the auspices of 
the Southern Methodist Church. About 1850 the Methodists 
entered into the new church which they now occupy. The old 
church was a good brick building, fronting the courthouse, and 
could have been sold for a considerable sum, but the trustees 
decided to hold it for the use of the slaves of the city — that is, 
for the preaching and other services by ministers who might be 
sent to the Vicksburg Colored Mission. 

The minutes before and after 1850 will show the Vicksburg 
Colored Mission to have been supplied by the presiding elder. 
It was always understood that this supply was to be Edwin G. 
Cook, a local elder, the writer of these recollections. In this 



Notes fro7n the Pioneers. 281 

old church I conducted all the sei-vices directed in the Discipline, 
including Sunday schools, bj oral instruction. Many of the 
scholars, however, could read the catechism and Bible. I had 
an official Board of Stewards; and, slaves though they were, the 
finances were properly managed and the house kept clean and 
in repair. 

The teaching and preaching were intended to be scriptural 
in doctrine, legal as to practical life, and great caution was en- 
joined as to profession of real or supposed spiritual attainments. 
The slave holders generally attended these meetings, as request- 
ed by law, to give authority to the services among slaves in the 
absence of an ordained white preacher. The colored men of 
this charge, and from elsewhere, would sometimes preach _and 
often exhort and pray most effectively. One colored man I re- 
call was a natural orator. When it was known that he was 
going to preach, a great number of white hearers would congre- 
gate at the church. His name was Henry Adams. He was a 
large, black, rather coarse-looking, but a good man, sincerely de- 
voted to the work of evangelizing his race, and his work was 
owned and blessed of God. 

One item that I here recall deserves mention. William 
C. Smedes, one of the most popular lawyers of that time in Vicks- 
burg, an Episcopalian, now deceased, purchased more than fifty 
slaves from South Carolina and placed them on his plantation 
below Vicksburg. Mr. Smedes stated to the writer that these 
slaves applied to him for a Methodist preacher to be sent to 
them, as many were of that Church, and all had been accus- 
tomed to hearing preaching from Methodist preachers in the 
state whence they had come. Mr. Smedes, having their welfare 
sincerely at heart, at once made application to Conference for a 
ininister to be sent to these blacks, assuring out of his own 
pocket the amount usual in compensation for such services. 
Mr. Smedes's noble example was not the only case among the 
planters in the vicinity of Vicksburg. 

At a dining in New York, when the neglect of religious serv- 
ices to the slaves was charged upon the people of the South, I 
stated that I knew one slave owner who had a plantation of 
nearly a hundi-ed slaves left to him on the death of his father, 
and another besides, on both of which he had preaching regu- 
larly by an itinerant Methodist preacher; and that the owner of 



282 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

them not only often closed the services to his slaves, but that he 
himself was in charge of a colored mission in that city. One of 
the guests, Rev. P. P. Sanford, spoke up and said he supposed 
this item was given from report. I replied: "It is given from 
no report, but from actual knowledge. I am the man in ques- 
tion." They were astonished, and seemed reluctant to believe, 
if in truth they ever did believe. 

I can give but a few scattered items to add to this wonderful 
history of missions to the slaves. Chapter after chapter could 
be written, each more wonderful than the other. It is a record 
of which our Church ought to be proud, that she ought never to 
let willingly die ; too much of it now lies in obscurity. Dr. C. 
K. Mai-shall, J. B. Walker, C. F. Evans, of New Orleans, and 
many of the old preachers of the Mississippi Conference could 
add much to this information. 

I have not lived in Vicksburg since the war. When I visit 
there, I often meet the colored members of the Church which I 
served for nearly ten years. It is a great pleasure to me, and 
they express and show an equal pleasure. My old body servant, 
Avho was a preacher when a slave, is now a preacher in charge 
of a Church of the A. M. E. I visited him lately, and we parted 
with prayer and the Christian hope: 

" Till we meet again." 



In order to show the likeness between the work- 
men engaged in these missions to the slaves in the 
widely separated communities of South Carolina, 
Mississippi, and Louisiana, we copy in full a paper 
from the hand of Rev. H. J. Harris, of Missis- 
sippi : 

Missions to the Slaves in Mississippi. 

By Rev. H. J. Harris, Hattiesburg, Miss. 

There were no more extensive missionary opera- 
tions in any Conference than in the Mississippi. 
At the first our people were somewhat skeptical as 



JVotes from the Pioneers. 283 

to whether it was compatible with the relation of 
master and slave. The mistaken idea was main- 
tained, among the irreligious especially, that the 
gospel to the negroes was but another name for 
abolition interference, and that it would generate 
insurbordination and insurrection. But the test 
made upon the rice plantations in South Carolina, 
under the leadership of the lamented Capers and 
his colaborers, demonstrated the power of the gos- 
pel to save the negro in our own land as well as in 
Africa; and when such men as Wade Hampton 
and the Pinckneys indorsed it, the cotton planters 
of Mississippi soon fell into line and became the 
most enthusiastic patrons of the enterprise. 

The Methodist Church was in every place the 
pioneer in the missionary work among the negroes, 
and has done more for their evangelization than 
any other branch of the Church in America, and 
especially in the South. As far back as 1839, 
when I was admitted on trial in the Mississippi 
Conference, and anterior to that date, many of our 
people who were slave holders recognized the ob- 
ligation to give their slaves the benefit of religious 
instruction, but it was imparted under certain limi- 
tations and restrictions. When the circuit preacher 
came on his regular rounds and had "family 
prayer" with the whites, the negroes were sum- 
moned to take part in the worship, and the word 
of exhortation was also given them. Gradually 
the sentiment grew until arrangements were made 

for special services to be had at the "quarters" 
19 



284 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

for the benefit of the negroes. Master, mistress, 
and their family regularly attended and took part 
in these services. 

As the work progressed — and it was found that 
the gospel, where rightly administered, made better 
servants as well as masters — the demand became 
general for the services of the circuit preacher. 
About 1846, under the leadership of -some of our 
largest slave holders, the work of regular planta- 
tion missions was inaugurated. 

Chief among those who first favored this move- 
ment was that great and good man, Judge Edward 
McGehee, of Wilkinson County, Miss. To his 
worthy name all praise is due as the patron of 
everything that was good. Under his roof Francis 
Asbury had lodged, and many other ministers of 
God found a hospitable home. He owned perhaps 
a thousand slaves, and had ten large cotton planta- 
tions, with an average of one hundred slaves on each. 
He made it a point that they should be comfortably 
clothed and fed, have comfortable quarters, and 
receive ever the kindest attention. Added to this, 
he provided amply for their religious instruction: 
had missionaries sent specially to his plantations, 
with carte'blanche, to preach, teach, catechise, and 
in every way instruct the negroes in the way to 
heaven. 

About the same time that prince of merchants in 
the palmy days of New Orleans, and prominent 
Methodist, H. R. W. Hill, who had settled several 
large plantations in the delta region of Mississippi, 



Notes from the Pioneers, 285 

became enlisted in this good work, and the min- 
utes of the Conference show for years, up to the 
time of the civil war, that he and others of our 
large slave holders in that region were careful to 
provide missionaries to their negroes. Wade 
Hampton, of South Carolina, became a large cot- 
ton planter in that region, and brought with him 
the ideas obtained from the noble work in his own 
state, and at once applied to the Conference for a 
missionary for his plantations. Prominent in the 
list of appointments for that period appear 
"Hampton's Plantations," "Hill's Plantations," 
"Deer Creek Mission," "Sunflower Mission," 
" Clover Hill," and scores of others where the 
congregations were made exclusively of plantation 
slaves. Nor would these planters have illiterate or 
inexperienced men, but always demanded experi- 
enced and competent men, such as they would 
have preach to their own families. 

This writer had the honor of being among the 
first of those appointed from our Conference to 
this special work. My field was a new and deli- 
cate one to fill. It lay along the Bayou Pierre, a 
tributary of the Mississippi, running through Clai- 
borne County from east to west, and entering the 
great river just below Grand Gulf. From its 
source to its terminus the stream was lined by a 
most fertile valley on either side, and was one con- 
tinuous cotton plantation. There were thousands 
of slaves working these plantations. Their owners 
were, to some extent, connected with the various 



286 The Gosj)el among the Slaves. 

religious denominations. The majority, however, 
were not of any Church at all. 

It was my privilege to serve this mission as the 
first missionary to the negroes in that quarter, and 
I recur to it as the most complimentary appoint- 
ment that had been given me up to that time. It 
had been given me in response to a letter numer- 
ously signed, addressed to my presiding elder. 
Rev. B. M. Drake, the loved and lamented, ask- 
ing for an able and prudent man. 

I had full liberty to arrange my own plans as to 
the preaching and catechising. These I endeav- 
ored to map out according to my best judgment. 
We were permitted to occupy neighborhood 
churches, where the slaves from several planta- 
tions came together on the Sabbath, while during 
the week we served them on the plantations. 
Among others we occupied an Episcopal church, 
which demonstrated the general interest taken in 
the work. 

In visiting pastorally the sick in the cabins, I 
witnessed scenes that would gladden the heart of 
an angel. Not unfrequently when I reached a 
plantation among the first matters claiming my at- 
tention was that some poor slave who was sick de- 
sired to see the missionary. Then, accompanied 
by some member of the master's household, bear- 
ing delicacies from master's table — luxuries suited 
to the palate of a king rather than a slave — we 
would repair to the sick room of the aged 
" mauma," at the "quarters," or maybe some 



Notes from the Pioneers. 287 

poor fainting sick one of younger years. There 
we would kneel and pray together and sing sweet 
songs. Often have I seen and heard a young mis- 
tress read the precious word of God, then kneel 
and pray at the sick bed of the aged servant who 
had nursed her when an infant, and with her own 
delicate hand wipe the cold sweat from the dying 
brow. 

I have witnessed, too, many a season of refresh- 
ing in which master, mistress, and slave alike par- 
ticipated, and seen them all rejoice together. If 
permitted to gain heaven through grace, I expect 
to meet many a poor slave to whom I preached the 
blessed gospel, which is the " power of God unto 
salvation " to all them that believe. 



The following paper relates to a period subse- 
quent to the division of the Church in 1844, but it 
exhibits the same spirit that actuated the pioneers 
of 1829: 

Labors in the Slave Mission Fields of Mis- 
sissippi FROM 1858 TO 1861. 
By Rev. J. F. W. Toland, Jonesboro, Tex, 

I was admitted on trial into the Alabama Con- 
ference of 1858, and was appointed to the mission 
to the blacks in Lowndes County, Miss., for my 
first year. Having thus before me a large terri- 
tory in which to work, I was compelled to preach 
three times on two Sabbaths of the month, never 
less than two, and sometimes four. On one oc- 



288 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

casion, owing to a sick family, I traveled thirty 
miles and preached three times in one day. 

The instructions of the Conference to the mis- 
sionary to the colored people was to catechise the 
children at every appointment, as well as to preach 
to the adults. These instructions were always 
faithfully carried out. 

Many of the negroes on these plantations were 
of Baptist persuasion themselves, but their owners 
were either Methodists or of no Church affiliation. 
But there was no sectarian feeling shown in hav- 
ing the gospel preached to their slaves. Many 
who belonged to no Church themselves were fore- 
most in their efforts to help the missionary in his 
work. Prominent among these families was that 
of the Hairstons. Frequently I preached in the 
elder Hairston's dwelling house. All the mem- 
bers of the family and many of the neighbors 
would assemble in one room, while the servants 
filled the hall, the adjacent room and the galler}^. 
In summer my pulpit was arranged in the porch 
of the house, the servants all being seated in the 
yard and the whites in the rooms and hall. 

Other planters (Gen. Cocke, of Virginia, and 
Col. Billups, of Columbus, Miss., among them), 
having large negro quarters, built a church con- 
venient for the servants of the three plantations. 
The attendance of each one able to do so was re- 
quired at this church 'for each service, though be 
it said, greatly to the credit of the negroes, this 
compulsion was hardly ever necessary. They 



Notes from the Pioneers. 289 

came gladly and in the most teachable spirit. At 
the church the missionary held his protracted 
meetings, sometimes to the whites and colored 
together. One incident connected with an occa- 
sion of this kind I must mention. Brother George 
Shasffer, a name closely connected with the mis- 
sion work to the negroes of this section, would 
often come to help in these meetings. Though 
the services might be to the whites, still a space 
was always reserved for the negroes, and they 
were included in the invitations. Old Brother 
Shseffer was a great favorite with Col. Billups, 
and he regularly had him once a year to conduct 
these meetings. It was a sight to see him get hap- 
py and go around shaking hands with white and 
black alike. O he was a grand old man, and the 
fruit he planted abides to this day. The negroes 
came to the altar on the same invitation as that to 
the whites, and the preachers were just as earnest 
praying for and talking with them. And when 
communicants were invited to commemorate the 
death and sufferings of our Lord and Saviour, the 
old Colonel and his good wife would go up and 
kneel round the same table with as many of their 
servants as could be served. It was a picture to 
be remembered. 

The missionary found quite a difference between 
the intelligence and religious status of the negroes 
on the various plantations. I found these condi- 
tions, in the greater part, dependent upon the as- 
sociations they had had with the whites, as well as 



290 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

the class of whites with whom they mingled. If 
these associations were of the best, then they had 
left their imprint on the negro for the best in every 
way: manners, speech, morals, and everything. 

On many of the plantations colored preachers 
of credit were found. Some of these were really 
talented as speakers. They gave valuable assist- 
ance to the missionary when holding protracted 
meetings. On one occasion Billy, an intelligent 
mulatto, a fine speaker — indeed, a natural orator — 
came to me during the exercises with the mourn- 
ers and asked me to find for him the hymn which 
contained the couplet 

Turn, sinners, turn, whj, why will jou die? 
Why grieve jour God and die? 

I found it for him, he could read, and he rose to 
tell his experience. He said that while he was a 
thoughtless sinner the words, "Why grieve your 
God and die?" had arrested his attention. He 
went on, with deep feeling and pathos, to relate 
his struggles and final conquest. It melted the 
hearts of all present. 

Old Uncle Emanuel was another of these preach- 
ers. He was a man of sound piety and of good 
practical sense. Emanuel was a Baptist, as were 
all the negroes on Sister Winston's farm; but he 
loved the Methodists, and he always concluded 
his exhortations to his people by urging them to 
pay attention to and profit by the teachings of the 
missionary. When negroes on the farms of Bap- 
tist owners were converted, they usually received 



Notes from the Pioneers. 291 

baptism at the hands of the Methodist missionary, 
and were left to pursue their own incHnation as 
regarded Church membership. If they preferred 
the Baptist Church, they were considered as Bap- 
tists, though included in the mission. I am satis- 
fied that there were as many Baptists as Metho- 
dists in my charge. 

At the next Annual Conference I was returned 
to the same work. My return was asked for by 
the planters, for they said that I seemed to under- 
stand the negro's nature; besides, the mission was 
doing a great good among their people. 

I must here note one peculiarity of the negro 
that I was not long in discovering. The first year, 
when they saw the preacher coming, they would 
say, "Yonder comes the preacher;" the second 
year, " our preacher;" and the third, " my preach- 
er." The longer the missionary remained the 
nearer he got to the heart of the negro. The 
planters seemed to realize this, and often asked 
for the same man back again. 

At the next Conference the whole territory ly- 
ing between the Mobile and Ohio railroad and the 
Tombigbee River on the west and east, Columbus 
on the north, and the line between Noxubee and 
Lowndes Counties on the south was thrown into 
one mission field to the blacks. Brother George 
Shgeffer, who had long been in charge of the col- 
ored mission church in Columbus, was appointed 
superintendent, and Brother James Hood and my- 
self as the regular missionaries. Brother Sh^effer 



292 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

was required to visit these missions as often as he 
thought it necessary. While on these visits, if on 
my part of the mission, I must fill his pulpit in the 
city; if on Brother Hood's part, then he had, in 
turn, to take Brother Shgeffer's place in the city. 

During this year we had times of great power 
among the blacks. The wave of revival spread 
from the country to the city, and from the city 
back to the country again. I must here say a few 
words in regard to this colored Church in Colum- 
bus, Miss. It was a Church of very large mem- 
bership, made so by the indefatigable labors of 
Brother Shaffer, who had served it for a number 
of years. There were several prominent negro 
preachers in the Church, possessing exceptional 
talent, especially in exhortation and song. O if I 
could once again hear such singing as I used to 
hear from those negroes ! Thirty years and more 
have passed since then, but I have never heard 
any to equal it from that time to the present. 

My fourth appointment was to a circuit, and my 
fifth also to a circuit, the latter the Pickens Cir- 
cuit, in Pickens County, Ala. On this work there 
were three churches in a rich portion of the coun- 
ty, each attended by a large concourse of negroes. 
O the times that Dr. Perry, of Vienna, and my- 
self used to have among those negroes ! The rec- 
ollections come back to-day with a force and pow- 
er that send my heart into a glow. 

The negroes would begin assembling in the 
morning, and by the time services for the whites, 



Notes from the Pioneers. 293 

at II o'clock, were ended, the yard would be filled 
with the negroes. The service to the whites con- 
cluded, they would soon crowd in until the house 
was packed. Sometimes the throng was so great 
that many of them could find no space in the 
house. They began singing, and by the time 
Brother Perry and I had finished our refresh- 
ments the waves of their melody would be sound- 
ing out like the beat of the surf upon the shore. 
Even after the services were over and we had dis- 
missed them, they would linger about the groves 
until nightfall, singing and praying and shouting. 

Dr. Perry has passed to his reward. He died 
in Gatesville, Tex., but the seed of his sowing is 
bearing its precious fruit to this day. So many of 
the old missionaries have passed away that but few 
remain to tell the story, as thrilling as any there 
is in Methodism. O that it had been written 
years ago ! There must, of necessity, be much 
lost, many, too many threads missing from the 
strand. But the Master has gathered all the 
broken ends to himself, and in that last day he, 
and he alone, will show them complete. 



In concluding this chapter we avail ourselves of 
the following " Items of Slave Mission Work in 
Mississippi," by Bishop C. B. Galloway. A wor- 
thy son of a noble state, he enables us to give a 
record of the principles which governed the slave 
holders of Mississippi more than sixty years ago. 



294 1^^^^ Gosj[>el among the Slaves. 

" It is a significant fact," says the bishop, "that 
Mississippi retired to private life her ablest and 
most distinguished statesman because of his sup- 
posed opposition to the religious instruction of the 
negroes. The early history of the state contains 
no name equal in broad statesmanship and legal 
learning to George Poindexter. As largely the 
author of her first Constitution, the codifier of her 
laws, Governor of the State, and United States 
Senator, he was peerless at home and the peer of 
Clay, Calhoun, and Webster in the upper house 
of Congress. But in 1822 he was defeated for 
Congress because of a provision he had inserted 
in the Code of 1820-21 supposed to be unfavora- 
ble to the religious training of slaves. Of this de- 
feat Claiborne, in his ' History of Mississippi,' thus 
writes : 

These provisions were intended as matters of police and as 
safeguards against insurrection, but a majority of our citizens 
regarded them as substantially excluding the colored people 
from religious privileges, and they expressed their disapproba- 
tion by casting their votes against their favorite and ablest 
statesman. He who had heretofore carried every election by 
large majorities, and had trampled down innumerable slanders 
was defeated by a sentiment of religions duty and comfassioit for 
the blacks. . . . With no extraneous influences acting upon 
them, the citizens of Mississippi, feeling that all mankind are 
equal in the sight of God, and that all are equally entitled to 
hear his word, indignantly rejected the law proposed by Mr. 
Poindexter, and consigned him to private life. . . . The 
obnoxious provisions proposed by Mr. Poindexter had been re- 
jected by the Legislature in 1822. The colored people had the 
same religious privileges as the ivhites. They had their colored 
ministers. They often knelt in praj'er in the family circle, in 
the parlors of their masters. And the very system of plantation 



Notes from the Pioneers. 295 

^reaching which it was charged Mr. Poindexter desired to pre- 
vent was in full operation. 

" I know of no more significant event in the 
whole history of the South which more clearly in- 
dicates the true spirit of the people toward the 
moral and spiritual well-being of the negro. A 
great statesman, almost omnipotent in political in- 
fluence, was hurled from place and power because 
he was regarded as unsound on that great issue: 
* plantation preaching.' 

''As illustration of the system adopted by all the 
Churches to reach the great mass of the negroes 
on the plantations, I reproduce a letter written by 
Rev. B. W. Williams, a Presbyterian minister and 
addressed to Gen. John A. Quitman, one of the 
most distinguished citizens of Mississippi. 

Pine Ridge, Miss., September 4, 1S31. 

To Gen. John A. Quitman. 

Honored and Dear Sir : I doubt not jou will excuse me for 
trespassing upon jour attention for a few moments, especially 
when you learn the occasion. The Church of Pine Ridge, 
within whose bounds you have a plantation, is now making an 
effort to give the gospel to every rational being under its care, 
the young as well as the old^ the bond as well as the_/re5. In 
order to do this effectually, it is necessary to adopt the system 
oi flajitation preaching, which is now acknowledged to possess 
more advantages than any other. It requii-es, however, a 
greater number of preachers than where all can be assembled 
in one place. One minister can take charge of about nine plan- 
tations, giving them instruction, f reaching and catechising every 
second or third Sabbath; preaching during the week when de- 
sired, celebrating marriages, visiting the sick, and burying the 
dead. There are already two such assistants employed in my 
parish, and thus far the plan has succeeded admirably. 

Nearly all the planters here feel their responsibility for their 



296 The Gosfel among the Slaves. 

servants so deeply that they have united to provide regular 2ix\di 
frequent religious instruction for them bj good and competent 
teachers. In this way the servants are made accountable for 
themselves, and the master is relieved from his most solemn 
responsibility in this respect. 

Nearly every plantation has adopted the plan, and by unit- 
ing, the expense is very trifling, about one dollar per head, for 
all over four years of age. The services of an educated man 
(and none others are so well suited to the work) cannot be ob- 
tained for a salary less than $500 or $600. 

Some of the smaller plantations, in order to have as frequent 
services as the others, give rather more than a dollar apiece. 

As a Church we are laboring and praying for the conver- 
sion of the whole world, and we deem it but reasonable that the 
good work should commence at home. And masters, when 
they remember their accountability, and that they are to meet 
their servants at the judgment bar of God, readily concur with 
us. They acknowledge their obligation to provide for the spir- 
itual as well as the temporal wants of those whom God has in- 
trusted to their care. 

I would further add that the teachers employed will be un- 
der the constant supervision of the session of the Church, some 
of whom are themselves planters in this neighborhood. 

Hoping to hear from you as soon as convenient, and to learn 
your views and feelings as regards the subject in general, and 
also in reference to your own place in particular, I remain 

Yours most respectfully and truly, B. W. Williams. 

"That letter is interesting as detailing: i. The 
plan for plantation preaching. 2. The early day 
when such systematic work was in full operation. 
3. The candor and honesty with which ministers 
talked to masters as to their spiritual obligations 
to their servants. Of course Methodism, with its 
itinei'ant system, could most efficiently work the 
plan of plantation preaching, and soon had the 
largest negro membership of any Church in the 
South." 



CHAPTER XV. 

Plantation Missions from 1844 to 1864. 

THE division of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
in 1844 emphasized the work of sending the 
gospel to the slaves in the South. At various pe- 
riods the deliverances of the Church had been so 
threatening in their character, and imprudent men 
had so often placed the very existence of Metho- 
dism in jeopardy, that the doctrine of noninter- 
ference with civil institutions by officers of the 
Church, in their ecclesiastical capacity, removed 
every obstacle in the way of the Southern Metho- 
dist Church. There was no longer any danger 
that the professed missionary would become an 
incendiary, and therefore a man indorsed by a 
Southern Conference was considered by the own- 
ers of slaves as trustworthy by virtue of that in- 
dorsement alone. 

The deposition of Bishop Andrew, because he 
could not emancipate a slave belonging to his wife, 
was the occasion of the division of the Church. 
No sooner was the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South, organized than the "Macedonian cry" 
was heard in every portion of the Southern terri- 
tory, where large numbers of slaves existed. In- 
creased contributions came to the treasury, and 
large numbers of the ministry were soon engaged 

(297) 



298 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

in this labor of love. Within the twenty years 
comprised between the years 1845 and 1864 more 
than $1,800,000 was expended, and at the close 
of the civil war there were over 300 missionaries 
employed in preaching the gospel to the slaves on 
the large plantations in the South. As thoroughly 
organized as any other portion of our Church 
work, the missions were filled by men compe- 
tent to teach, men adapted b}^ nature and by 
grace, as well as by education, to teach and 
guide the souls committed to their care. Born 
in the South, thoroughly versed in the negro 
character, understanding their faults as perfectly 
as they recognized their virtues, these men of God 
l were welcomed everywhere by the masters and by 
the slaves. If any exception occurred, it was too 
insignificant to warrant a record in these pages. 
So far from entertaining any feeling hostile to the 
advancement of the slave, common sense taught 
the slave holder that by as much as his negroes 
were true Christians by so much were they better 
servants. If anywhere in the South a model of 
Mrs. Stowe's slave holder could be found, he was 
no more a typical specimen of Southern character 
than Prof. Webster was a type of Boston civiliza- 
tion. W^ebster murdered his creditor, Dr. Park- 
man, and burned his body in the stove which 
heated the professor's room, but all Boston sci- 
entists cannot be judged by the standard of this 
bloody fiend. In like manner, in every age, cruel, 
ungodly men have dishonored every calling and 



Plantation Missions from 1844. to 186^. 299 

every community, and the existence of some of 
these fiends among Southern slave holders was 
undeniable. But the people of the South detested 
them, and public opinion was as outspoken against 
them in the Southern as in the Northern states. 

The extraordinary conduct of the slaves during 
the civil war is an inexplicable feature in the his- 
tory of that great struggle. Inexplicable, we mean, 
if this evangelizing work of the missionaries is not 
taken into the problem. Many writers have be- 
lieved that Mr. Wesley's followers prevented the 
uprising of the masses of the English poor at the 
time of the French Revolution. Religion is the 
strongest tie that unites man to man in the social 
constitution. The diffusion of religion " pure and 
undefiled" is the best safeguard, and the most po- 
tent agency for the preservation of civil societ3% 
Its operation is uniform. Cultured and uncultured 
people are alike affected by its precepts. Whether 
the population be as humble as the hundreds dom- 
iciled upon a rice plantation, or as greatly blessed 
with this world's bounties as the richest and most 
favored society, precisely to the extent that religion 
has a place in the hearts of the people to that ex- 
tent will harmony, love, and peace prevail. 

No grander tribute can be paid to the power of 
the gospel on the one hand, and the sincerity of 
the poor Africans who professed it on the other 
than that which is furnished by the state of the 
negro population of the South in the four years 
expiring in 1865. Masters in the army, even to 
20 



300 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

the age of threescore in many instances, and com- 
ing down to the lad in the midst of his teens in 
thousands of cases ; women left alone upon exten- 
sive farms, where an able-bodied man could scarce- 
ly be found in a day's ride ; negroes taking charge 
of every interest of their owners, planting, har- 
vesting, selling the crop, and laying in the planta- 
tion supplies, tenderly guarding every species of 
property in danger of waste or loss ; careful and 
faithful stewards of absent owners ; these people 
wept for the slain of the household and rejoiced 
with the fullness of joy when victory perched upon 
the banners of their owners, and they kept them- 
selves true to their trust until the last day of their 
bondage. So few were the heinous offenses against 
person or property, that the writer does not remem- 
ber half a dozen instances of assault committed by 
a negro upon the person of a white woman in all of 
those terrible years. That crime was almost un- 
known. A symptom of decaying civilization, it 
was held in such horror that it was scarcely con- 
ceivable as a possibility to either race. 

Alas ! the fearful outbreakings of lawlessness in 
these latter days are eloquent proofs of the degen- 
eracy of the people, and fearful tokens of dangers 
to come. But the religious spirit of the Southern 
slaves was not occasional nor transitory during the 
war period. Principles, deep-seated and true, 
held the dark sons of Africa to the gospel of 
Christ. The Bible was their refuge and their 
tower of strength, and we shall have occasion to 



Plantation Missions from 18^4. to 186/f.. 301 

see the types of character developed by the in- 
struction received from the ministry of the mis- 
sionaries. 

If it were necessary to enter into the details of 
the work on the plantations, we have abundant 
material. But we have already described the 
scenes occurring in this mission field, and by the 
workmen themselves the reader has been thor- 
oughly informed of all of its peculiarities. It is 
only necessary to state that subsequent to 1844 the 
plantation mission attracted increased and increas- 
ing attention. In 1849 there were fifteen Confer- 
ences in whose territory this class of missions was 
established, and 107 distinct appointments were 
recognized, with 122 regularly appointed mission- 
aries. In some Conferences, as in South Caro- 
lina, Georgia, and Mississippi, there were super- 
intendents whose special work was the right or- 
dering of this important enterprise. 

South Carolina kept in the lead, although Mis- 
sissippi followed very closely. In the latter Con- 
ference there was a slave mission district, com- 
prising thirty-five or forty plantations, served by 
eight or nine missionaries, with a presiding elder 
at their head. Lake Washington District was cre- 
ated solely for the purpose of giving the greatest 
efficiency possible to this work. It would be in- 
vidious, perhaps, to mention the names of these 
missionaries, unless we could give place to them 
all, and to do this would require space equal to 
the record of a great part of the Conference. 



302 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

Th.Q table which closes this chapter will show 
the relative strength of the various Conferences, 
the number of missions, missionaries, Church 
members, and the amount of money expended 
for the maintenance of the work. In this table 
the reader will see the gradual expansion, from 
year to year, until, in i860, there were no less 
than 207,000 African slaves enrolled upon the 
register of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South. 

" The religious sentiment of the whole Southern 
country was now keenly and zealously aroused in 
behalf of slave missions. Every effort within the 
power of her Christian people was put forth to 
furnish the negro, especially the plantation negro, 
the light of the gospel. Women, and even little 
children, contributed to the treasury fund. There 
is more than one instance on record where the 
former parted with earrings, breastpins, and other 
jewelry, that their value in dollars might go to 
teach the poor negro the way of eternal life. And 
once — ah ! let us forever preserve that incident — a 
child gave its toys. 

"The few planters who had at first opposed the 
entrance of the missionary, fearing malicious out- 
side influence, had now, with rare exception, ac- 
knowledged their error. Indeed, the case of 
Louisiana was but the case of every Southern 
state at this time ; the call for missionaries far ex- 
ceeded the supply. Masters and mistresses, even 
little children, now helped with the work. Many, 



Plantation lyfissions from 184^ to 1S64. 303 

many pictures are drawn of Southern maidens, re- 
fined and delicately reared, seated under the shade 
of spreading oak or within some outhouse, teach- 
ing the catechism to the little negro children ; or 
again beside the bed of the aged sick, reading 
from the Bible or hymn book. The mistress, in 
the absence of her husband, assembled her slaves, 
morning and evening, reading to them from the 
most precious of books, while the words of prayer 
were either from her own lips or those of some 
earnest, faithful negro. 

"On the cold, hard boards of a negro cabin, 
with only a light wrap covering the night clothes 
which she had not had time to rem.ove in the haste 
of her summons, a young girl, delicate herself in 
health, knelt, hour after hour, repeating the words 
of Scripture for the last time and singing hymns to 
the fondly loved old mauma on whose bosom her 
baby head had been pillowed. 

" On a plague-infested island, where death held 
high carnival and every breeze was a vehicle for 
his poisoned breath, a man high in social and po- 
litical position — in short, the Governor of his state 
— went from cabin to cabin, periling his own life 
that he might see to the needs and comforts of his 
stricken people. 

*' On a bed of pain and sickness, when almost 
every movement was a torture, a little child — God 
bless that little child — opened the way of eternal 
life to the old slave man who attended him. 

" On what he thought to be his dying bed Rev. 



304 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

Charles Wilson still taught his people, night and 
morning, often with their eyes wet, around him. 
In the same spirit he and his noble colleague faced 
the fearful perils of plague-stricken Jehossee. A 
similar instance of devotion was that of Rev. Mr. 
Bryan on the islands around Savannah, Ga. 

"High and low alike entered into this noble 
work. There was no phase of it too humble, no 
duty connected with it too unpleasant to deter the 
most earnest and painstaking effort. Bishop Mc- 
Tyeire, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 
declared that during a long ministerial life there 
was nothing connected with it in which he took 
more pride and satisfaction than the remembrance 
of the more than three hundred sermons he had 
preached to negro congregations. As these words 
were penned in 1857, he could doubtless have 
added another three hundred to the number. 
Bishop Haygood holds as among the most pleas- 
ing memories of his maturer life the fact that, as a 
boy, he endeavored to teach his father's old ne- 
gro plowman to read. 

"Two of the most zealous and untiring friends 
the negro race ever had at this period, who 
preached to them, worked for them, and even, 
on more than one occasion, catechised their chil- 
dren, were Revs. William Capers and James O. 
Andrew, of South Carolina, both of them at that 
time bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South. 

"The death of Bishop Capers, January 29, 



Plantation Missions from 18^4. to 1864. 305 

1855, was a sad and heavy blow to the cause that 
owed its beginning as much to his devoted and 
zealous effort as to any other source. Even 
though the first request for a regular missionary 
to the slaves came from outsiders, it was, never- 
theless, the energy and eloquence with which Wil- 
liam Capers presented the point before his Con- 
ference that secured for the movement its prompt 
and hearty inauguration. Miss Martin is right 
when she says that his monument at Columbia 
bears a grander inscription than that of the great- 
est soldier or hero of earth : 

' Founder of missions to the slaves.' 
"As the corpse lay in the chancel of the church 
at Columbia, one of the most affecting scenes in 
connection with the day was the large number of 
negroes who pressed around, each seeking to get a 
last look at that noble and serenely reposing face. 
He had been, in the truest sense, their friend, and 
he was dead. Tear after tear fell streaming from 
their e3'^es upon his coffin. 

"There was scarcely any comparison now be- 
tween the condition of these plantation negroes 
and their condition when first the light of evangeli- 
zation had been kindled among them. Ignorant, 
superstitious, grossly immoral, it was like seeking 
to pierce the well-nigh impenetrable darkness 
locked in the very bowels of the earth. Thou- 
sands of them could only speak English in a 
broken way; hundreds still jabbered unintelli- 
gibly in their Gullah and other African dialects. 



3o6 The Gosfel among the Slaves. 

It was pitiful to hear them trying to address words 
of petition to God in their broken language. 

'"O mausa, I no know dis country talk," cried 
an old woman, with streaming eyes, in the Charles- 
ton class meetingf. * I know not'in' but de Af- 
ricay.' 

"'Then, my sister,' said the minister, * pray 
to God in the African. He will hear you all the 
same.' 

"When she saw him again, her face was radi- 
ant. She said: ' I do as you telle me. I pray 
God een de Africay. Meh Lord Jesus yerry 
[hear] me, en now meh soul go free.^ Her joy 
grew greater still when she learned to talk to God 
in the language of the missionaries. 

" On an island near Beaufort, S. C, Rev. John 
R. Coburn found an old negro whose sole reli- 
gious ideas consisted of crying to the sun and 
moon when they arose. He soon left him shout- 
ing the unspeakable praises of one living and 
eternal God. 

"In the canebrakes of Alabama an old negro 
named Jack, still clmging to the darkness and su- 
perstition of his greegree worship, met a mission- 
ary, Rev. E. Mortimer, and after a hard struggle 
finally opened his soul to the true light. Jack 
lived to be one hundred and fifteen years old. 
The light shining so radiantly from his soul found 
its way to others. For a long while he could only 
talk in a broken v/ay of his new feeling, but final- 
ly the words came clearer and fuller, and he could 



Plantation Missions f 7' om i8^^ to i86^. 307 

pray ' fervent, effectual prayers.' The missionary 
says of Jack's death: ' Old Jack died on his knees 
while at prayer, without any previous sickness to 
admonish him of approaching dissolution. His re- 
mains w^ere followed to the grave by one of the 
largest funeral processions ever seen in this vil- 
lage. The citizens and ladies of Greenwood 
turned out as though to do honor to some wor- 
thy citizen.' 

"Many of the branches plucked from decay 
became themselves the source of life to others. 
Many of those who had caught the seed on fruit- 
ful ground became themselves, in turn, sowers of 
the word. Hundreds of such instances could be 
given, but I have space for only one: 'At the 
Plaquemine quarterly meeting,' says a missionary, 
writing from Louisiana in September of 1857, 'we 
observed, on Sunday morning, a deeply interested 
hearer, a black man, on a rear seat. After serv- 
ice he presented himself with a request. He had 
come with his wife eight miles to have a child bap- 
tized, and though sermon and sacrament had been 
appointed there for colored people in the after- 
noon, he could not wait so long. His request was 
attended to. No missionary had ever been on his 
place, yet he was well instructed and pious; a na- 
tive of Frederick, Va., and converted there; his 
wife, he said, was in the gospel before him. On 
that sugar plantation of Louisiana was seen the 
leaven principle of religion; he was a witness and 
evangelist, preaching to his fellow-servants in his 



3o8 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

own way, and showing them the way of salvation. 
Said he joyously: " Fourteen of our people turned 
to the Lord last year." ' 

"With encouragement and advice he went his 
way, ' toting ' the new Christian. He plunged into 
the cane fields, there in obscurity to be a witness 
for the Lord. Some day he will come again, 
bringing his sheaves with him. 

"And thus the work went on and grew year by 
year, spreading out and striking its rootlets into 
the soil, occupying, more perseveringly still, the 
old. The sentiment expressed at this time by 
Bishop Andrew on behalf of the South Carolina 
Conference was but the sentiment of the others: 
' Whatever becomes of the other mission work, we 
will never abandon our negro missions.' Faith- 
fully were these words kept, even through the 
storm-rocked period of disastrous war. 

"At the close of 1858 there were actively oper- 
ated 221 distinct slave mission fields, in addition 
to a full twoscore and more of special colored 
charges, with a membership in the mission family 
proper of 53,773 souls. The total colored mem- 
bership in the Southern Conferences at this period 
was 155,932, with the additional lists of 32,104 on 
probation and about 14,000 children under cate- 
chetical instruction. 

" Presbyterian and Baptist preachers, as well 
as Methodists, had their regular charges among 
the slaves. But the greater work done by these 
was in the congregations of the whites. Preach- 



Plantation Missions from iS^^ to i86^. 309 

ers and people alike worked faithfully, prayerful- 
ly to bring poor sin-darkened Ethiopia into the full 
noonday of spiritual righteousness. It was not a 
romantic work by any means. It lacked many of 
those elements which stir the pulse of enthusiasm, 
but it was nevertheless the work of hope, of faith, 
and of pure consecrated effort. It was missionar}'- 
work in its highest sense, and into this work the 
Church entered with the full measure of her zeal 
and liberality. The record of this work should 
be preserved forever as a glory that cannot be 
dimmed. 

"Though Bishop Capers was dead, the noble 
and zealous Andrew still lived to push the work 
with consecrated zeal and vigor. The negro race 
in America never had a more devoted and sympa- 
thetic friend than James O. Andrew, bishop of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Wherever 
he went he talked and worked in their behalf. 
Neither pen nor tongue was ever silent when a 
word could be urged for the good of the cause. 

*' ' I remember,' says Dr. C. K. Marshall, of 
Vicksburg, Miss., ' that when the saintly Bishop 
Andrew presided over our Conference years ago 
he emphasized the duty of fidelity to Christ's poor 
in preaching the gospel, by dwelling at considera- 
ble length on the obligation of preaching to the 
slaves. Said he: " My brethren, our estimates of 
men differ widely from God's. With him it is not 
a question of age, condition, or color. He looks 
alike on master and the servant. With him souls 



3IO The Gospel among the Slaves. 

are souls. And the soul of the poorest slave, washed 
in redeeming blood, is dearer to God than the un- 
regenerated spirit of the greatest monarch. For 
myself I would rather know that some poor slave 
would cast a flower on my grave when I am gone, 
in grateful memory of my agency in leading him 
to Jesus, than to have any honor this poor world 
could bestow upon me." I quote the bishop's 
words from memory, but never had the great truth 
thus announced so fixed itself upon that memory. 
The pathos, the transparency, the inspiration with 
which he poured forth that half -hour's appeal 
filled every attentive ear and feeling heart with a 
fresh and profound sense of growing obligation to 
carry the light of divine life into every negro cabin 
where it was possible to find access.' 

" By 1859 ^^^ number of slave missions had in- 
creased to 290, served by 292 missionaries and 
covering a field that extended from the Potomac 
to the Gulf of Mexico, and from the Atlantic sea- 
board to the Mississippi and beyond. In all this 
Southern territory few were the plantations that 
were not now included in the missionary's regular 
visit or else within access of some church used by 
both whites and blacks. The number of members 
exclusively in this mission family throughout the 
different Conferences was for this year (1859) 
56,468. The total colored membership for the 
Southern Methodist Church at this period was 
163,296. Of this number, South Carolina had 
41,127; Georgia, 21,455; Alabama, 20,577; North 



Plantation Missions from 1844. to 1864.. 311 

Carolina, 11,708; and Mississippi, 11,008. The 
increase of colored membership for this one year 
was 7,274. The amount paid out for the mainte- 
nance of these missions for the one year aggre- 
gated $130,076.88. In addition to this there were 
a number of colored Churches partly supported 
by the whites. In other cases, where the slaves 
themselves paid their pastors, they were given the 
opportunity by their owners to earn the money for 
themselves. 

*' It had now become the custom in all the larger 
cities and in many of the smaller towns for the 
preachers to devote Sunday afternoon to the reli- 
gious instruction of the slaves who could not at- 
tend the preaching of the whites in the morning. 
A large amount of missionary work was done in 
this way. Indeed, the Church was reaching out 
in every direction to care for and save the souls of 
the negro population within her bounds. Not for 
a moment did she slacken in her duty; never once 
did her prayers grow less or her zeal grow colder; 
never did she draw her purse strings against any 
appeal that it lay in her power to answer. Econ- 
omy in many directions was practiced, that the 
largest liberality might be possible in this depart- 
ment of Church operations among the blacks. 
During the thirty-six years of its missionary labors 
among the slave population of its plantations the 
South Carolina Conference alone expended a sum 
closely approaching in round numbers $400,000, 
or an average of more than $10,000 a year. Next 



312 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

to this came the Alabama Conference, which gave 
$354,416.67. Following Alabama was the Geor- 
gia Conference, giving $302,530.94. This was 
also an average of more than $10,000 a year for 
Alabama, and in the neighborhood of $9,500 for 
Georgia, as the latter was two years and the for- 
mer five years behind the South Carolina Confer- 
ence in beginning missionary operations. Accord- 
ing to the length of time, putting the calculation 
upon the basis adopted, the Alabama Conference 
gave more than any other in the support of this 
work. 

"In 1861, at the beginning of the war, there 
were in this mission family 77,802 members. This 
included three colored churches in the cities that 
were purely mission churches. In the plantation 
family proper there were 70,301 in full connection 
in addition to 12,672 probationers, and nearly six- 
teen thousand children under catechetical instruc- 
tion. In South Carolina alone there were over two 
hundred plantations served. The next largest ter- 
ritory occupied was in the Mississippi Valley, and 
covering ground of both the Mississippi and Lou- 
isiana Conferences. For this year Mississippi re- 
ported the largest number of slave missions in any 
Conference — 42 in all. While the figures reported 
in her missionary appropriations are not so large 
as those of other Conferences occupying like her- 
self much territory, it is doubtless true that much 
of the revenue expended in the support of these 
missions was not included in the report of the 



Plantation Missions from 184.4. ^^ 1864.. 313 

Minutes. We have found many instances of Mis- 
sissippi and Louisiana planters donating bales of 
cotton and hogsheads of sugar and syrup toward 
the salaries of the missionaries. There is also 
more than one instance of planters paying their 
salaries entire. There is no possible way of get- 
ting a correct table of these additional funds. The 
true amount expended in the evangelization of the 
slaves, not only by this Conference but by the 
others of the Southern connection, will never be 
known until the pages of God's account book lie 
open in the presence of an assembled world. 

"During the year 1862, when the guns of an 
invading army were thundering at her doors and 
every sinew of finance was strained to its utmost 
tension, the South, through the Southern Metho- 
dist Church alone, paid out of her treasury for the 
evangelization of her slaves $93,509.87. What 
the other Churches paid we cannot tell, but it was 
probably as much as $57,000, amounting in all to 
$150,000. For this year (1862) the Methodist 
Church, South, had in her slave mission family 
63,649 members. Several thousand of those in 
the regular mission family had for various reasons 
been placed in the work of the regular circuits. 
Here they were as faithfully cared for as they had 
been in their own mission. The heroism and the 
zeal with which the Southern Churches kept their 
faith in this work of evangelization throughout all 
this stormy period forms a chapter that must thrill 
every Southern heart and win the honest admira- 



314 The G OS-pel among the Slaves. 

tion and commendation of every fair-minded per- 
son, irrespective of creed or section. 

"From the year 1862 the numerous breaks in 
the mission Minutes form insurmountable obsta- 
cles in the v^ay of preparing anything like a defi- 
nite statement. From the beginning of that year 
to 1865, first one Conference and then another 
had portions of its territory ' within' the enemy's 
lines.' Sometimes an entire district, maybe two 
and three, would be thus situated, and were there- 
fore left out of the statistics of the Minutes; or the 
omission would be that of a whole Conference, 
with no annual meeting at all. But because there 
was no report given we must not understand that 
there was no work done. Far from it. This we 
know to a certainty: whatever lay within the scope 
of human power strengthened by divine aid was 
done that the work might go forward with its full 
vigor. There were heroes outside the army, mor- 
al heroes as well as physical, men who were con- 
stantly sacrificing self and the tenderest feelings 
that this work of salvation to the negro race of the 
South might not grow stagnant in a single vein 
through vv^hich the life current might be made to 
penetrate. Physical heroes they were too. The 
story comes of a brave old missionary out in the 
Tennessee Valley, v/ho, finding the bridge gone, 
burned by a retreating army, swam the icy current, 
that he might preach to his waiting charge on the 
other side. The negroes made him a fire of pine 
knots, and as he dried his steaming clothes he 



Plantation Missions from 18^4. to 1864.. 315 

preached to them the word of life. Down through 
a line of pickets, with a shower of bullets follow- 
ing him, rode another of these heroic knights of 
the cross, that the little band of expectant negroes 
in the pine woods of Georgia might not be denied 
the sacrament for which they waited. 

"Dr. C. K. Marshall, of Vicksburg, is right 
when he says of this stormy period as well as of 
the trying times that preceded it: 'I doubt if more 
trying conditions ever taxed the power and piety 
of foreign missionaries, save in a few fields of re- 
markable embarrassment, than were encountered 
by the intrepid and faithful workers of those days.' 
Consecrated women, too, as well as men, strug- 
gled to keep the flame of this noble work aglow. 
Instances innumerable are given of these Christian 
women, in the absence of their husbands in the 
army, assembling their slaves, night and morning, 
for prayer. Often, too, when the missionary was 
detained, either providentially or by the interven- 
ing lines of the enemy, they gathered their slaves 
for the regular worship, and, reading a selection 
from the Bible, endeavored to give them a plain 
and practical sermon from it. This deep and 
earnest solicitude for the salvation of the negro 
race had its abiding place deep in the hearts of 
thousands of the Christian men and women of the 
South. Born of the Spirit of God, supplied from 
the fountains of an ever springing humanity, it 
could not be quenched, even by the angry and 
turbulent floods of raging war. It was an ever 
21 



3i6 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

living presence sweetening and purifying, eleva- 
ting and ennobling. To-day the fair flowers of 
righteousness that it watered into immortal growth 
within the hearts of hundreds — nay, thousands — of 
the old time negro race of the South exhale a 
sweetness and a fragrance that is unlike that of 
the later and more exotic growth that surrounds 
them. We do not intend to demean the younger 
generation of the negroes of the South. There 
are many instances of this sweet humility, this 
deep earnestness of nature, flowing in an unbro- 
ken stream from parent to child. Where the reli- 
gion is pure and deep and fervent, a true, breath- 
ing, living religion, the fragrance of gentle pur- 
poses, of wholesome endeavors, of elevating in- 
stincts, of love, of good-will, and of genuine Chris- 
tianity will show itself unmistakably. 

" Though paralyzed in every nerve by the strain 
of a three years' war, and having every resource 
well-nigh exhausted, the South paid out during the 
year 1864 for the religious instruction of her slaves 
a sum that would closely approximate, we think, 
$250,000. Of this amount the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, South, paid nearly two-thirds, or 
$158,421.96. During the very last year of the 
struggle, when poverty and prostration lay on ev- 
ery side, and fully two-thirds of the Southern ter- 
ritory had been swept as though by a cyclone, the 
sum of $80,000 was raised by the Southern Meth- 
odist Church in support of negro evangelization. 

" During the thirty-four years of its slave mis- 



Plantation Missions from 184^ to 1864. 317 

sion period, the Methodist Church, South, paid 
out upward of $2,000,000 for the Christianizing 
of the negro race. There is no going behind that 
sum ; to go beyond it — well beyond it — would give 
the more accurate estimate. I have no doubt 
whatever, from the careful examination and in- 
quiry that I have given the subject, that a full half 
million more might safely be counted. What a 
glorious chain it would form could every ' missing 
link ' be added ! And yet there are some people 
who say that we have done nothing. 

*'At the setting off, in 1870, from the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, South, of the Colored Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church, the colored membership 
numbered nearly 80,000. This was a considera- 
ble falling off from the membership of over 200,- 
000 it had numbered a few years previous. The 
question naturally arises: What had become of this 
membership? The two African Churches of the 
North had absorbed a large share of it, and the 
other portion had gone to the Northern Methodist 
Church. 

"Bishop Haygood, in his 'Brother in Black,' 
estimates that at the close of the war between the 
states there were nearly half a million negroes who 
had been brought into the folds of the different 
Churches through the efforts of the Christian men 
and women of the South. How many more of 
this great mass had felt the uplifting influence of 
the leaven of consecrated effort no man can esti- 
mate." 



3i8 



The Gospel among the Slaves. 



The following table presents a view of the ap- 
propriations made by the several Conferences from 
1845 to 1864 inclusive, a period of twenty years, 
disturbed, in the latter part of the time, by the oc- 
cupation of the Southern territory by the Federal 
troops. The fidelity of the white people of the 
South to the religious welfare of the African slaves 
is one of the most remarkable facts connected with 
the most remarkable struggle recorded in modern 

history. 

Statistics from 1844 to 1864. 



Year. 



1845 
184s 
1845 
1.845 

184s 
184s 
1845 
184s 
1845 
1845 
184s 
1S46 
1846 
1846 
1846 
1846 
1846 
1846 
1846 
1846 
1846 
1846 
1846 
1846 
1847 
1847 
1847 
1847 
1847 



Conference. 



South Carolina 

Georgia 

Tennessee .... 
Mississippi. . . , 

Memphis 

Alabama ..... 

Virginia 

North Carolina 

Arkansas 

Florida 

East Texas .. . . 
South Carolina 

Georgia 

Tennessee 

Mississippi. . . . 

Memphis 

Alabama 

Louisiana 

Virginia , 

Florida 

North Carolina 

Arkansas 

Louisville 

St. Louis 

South Carolina 

Georgia 

Tennessee 

Memphis 

Alabama 



Missions. 


Members. 


Missiona- 
ries. 


17 


8,314 


22 


ID 


3,106 


12 


12 


3,311 


H 


II 


3,022 


12 


II 


3,383 


12 


II 


2,900 


12 


3 


481 


3 


3 


187 


3 


I 


113 


I 


3 


563 


3 


I 




I 


17 


9,321 


24 


12 


3,487 


15 


16 


3,706 


18 


10 


2,397 


12 


13 


3,394 


16 


13 


3,149 


15 


8 


2,165 


9 


3 


433 


3 


3 


465 


3 


2 


234 


2 


I 


109 


I 


I 


211 


I 


I 


421 


I 


17 


9,439 


24 


12 


3,176 


14 


19 


4,716 


21 


H 


3,567 


16 


H 


3,583 


16 



Amount 
Appropn'ed. 



I 9,720 60 

4,343 50 

2,848 75 

4,152 50 

3,254 ^6 

4,384 35 

1,985 60 

900 00 

300 00 

1,210 50 

300 00 

9,398 24 

5,776 40 

3,862 00 

3,600 00 

3,900 00 

4,350 00 

3,966 00 

2,266 00 

815 02 

1,068 00 

300 00 

300 00 

300 00 

11,870 00 

5,110 00 

3,221 75 

3,286 40 

4,350 60 



Plantation Missions from 1844. to 1864. 319 
Statistics from 1844 to 1864 (Continued). 



Conference. 

Mississippi . , . . 

Louisiana , 

Virginia 

Florida 

North Cai-olina 

Arkansas 

Louisville 

Sovxth Carolina 

Georgia 

Tennessee.. ... 

Alabama 

Mississippi. . . . 

Louisiana 

Memphis 

Virginia 

Arkansas , . 

North Carolina 

Florida 

East Texas. . . . 

Texas 

Louisville 

St. Louis , 

St. Louis 

Holston 

Tennessee .... 

Virginia 

Arkansas 

Memphis 

North Carolina 
Mississippi. . . , 
South Carolina 
East Texas .... 

Texas 

Louisiana 

Georgia ...... 

Alabama.. . . . . 

Florida ....... 

Holston. 

Virginia 

Arkansas 

Tennessee .... 
North Carolina 

Memphis 

East Texas. . . . 
Texas 



Missions. 

9 

8 

3 
3 

2 

I 

I 
16 
13 
^5 
19 
IS 

H 
6 

4 

3 

4 

2 

2 

2 

I 

I 

I 
12 

3 

3 

9 

3 
17 
16 

2 

2 
II 
12 
12 

4 
I 

3 
3 

S 
3 

ID 
I 



Members. 

2,357 

2,265 

496 

465 
224 
126 
421 

9,874 

4,613 

3,907 

3,863 

3,19s 

3,292 

3,852 

1,154 

372 

196 

603 

123 

113 
1,498 

50 

75 

3,169 
520 

365 
2,451 

563 
3,348 
9,031 

223 

188 
2,215 
4,311 
2,900 

458 
197 

1,297 
369 

1,156 
621 

2,804 
213 
217 



Missiona- 
ries. 

10 

9 
3 
3 

2 



23 
16 

17 
21 

17 
16 

IS 
6 

4 
3 

4 
2 



I 
I 

13 
3 
3 

10 

3 
19 

22 
2 
2 

12 

14 

13 

4 

I 

3 
3 
4 
3 



Amount 
Appropri'ed. 

$ 2,700 00 

1,595 38 

900 00 

815 00 

1,066 00 

300 00 

600 00 

10,184 00 

5,726 00 

3,074 34 

4,859 36 

2,064 60 

3,424 16 

5,185 33 

1,800 00 

1,200 00 

1,150 40 

1,200 00 

600 00 

812 26 

600 00 

300 00 

300 00 

300 00 

4,239 28 

900 00 

900 00 

4,514 00 

900 00 

3,358 66 

10,835 00 

600 00 

600 00 

1,912 00 

7,969 76 

5,460 00 

1,307 02 

300 00 

900 00 

900 00 

2,892 00 

1,290 20 

5,250 00 

300 00 

600 00 



320 



The Gospel among the Slaves. 



Statistics from 1844 to 1864 (Continued). 



Year. 



1850 
18^0 
1850 
1850 
1850 
1850 
1851 
1851 
1851 
1851 
1851 
1851 
1851 
1851 
1851 
1851 
1851 
1851 
1851 
18^2 
1852 
1S52 
1852 
1852 
1852 
1852 
1852 
1852 
1852 
1852 
1852 
1852 
1853 
1853 
1853 
1853 
1853 
1853 
1853 
1853 
1853 
1853 
1853 
1853 
1853 



Conference. 



South Carolina. 

Georgia 

Mississippi 

Alabama 

Louisiana 

Florida 

Virginia 

Tennessee 

Arkansas 

North Carolina. 

Memphis 

South Carolina. 

Georgia 

Mississippi 

Alabama 

Louisiana 

Florida 

East Texas 

Texas 

Tennessee 

Arkansas 

North Carolina. 

Virginia 

Memphis 

South Carolina. 

Georgia 

Mississippi 

Alabama 

Loi;isiana 

Florida 

East Texas 

Texas 

Virginia 

Tennessee 

Arkansas 

North Carolina. 

Memphis 

South Carolina. 

Georgia 

Mississippi 

Alabama 

Louisiana 

Florida 

East Texas 

Texas 



Missions. 



16 
II 
16 
10 

4 
5 
3 
6 
I 
4 
7 
18 

13 
19 

ID 

7 

4 

2 

2 

7 

3 

4 

4 

10 

20 

II 

23 

15 

12 

4 
I 
6 
6 

9 

2 

4 

II 

22 

21 

26 

21 

II 

6 

I 

9 



Members. 



8,326 
3,908 
2,750 
3,021 
1,381 

585 
1,098 
1,284 

220 
1,328 

8,700 

4,039 
4,161 

2,475 

1,563 

751 



1,915 

314 

1,793 

2,141 

2,729 

9,910 

3,912 

4,768 

3,143 

2,368 

1,016 

109 

603 

2,318 

2,277 

277 

1,713 

2,816 

11,653 
6,104 
5,036 
4,890 
3,627 
1,460 

340 
811 



Missiona- 
ries. 



24 

13 

18 
10 

5 
5 
3 
6 
I 
4 
7 

25 
IS 
21 
II 
7 

4 
2 
2 
7 
3 
4 
4 
II 
27 

13 

26 

16 

14 

4 

I 

6 

6 

9 

2 

4 
12 

28 
24 
28 

23 

12 

6 



Amount 
Appropri'ed. 



11,808 16 
8,142 02 

3.845 33 

6,330 66 
2,874 00 

1,333 32 
900 00 

4,316 23 

300 00 

2,816 70 

6.168 84 
12,265 32 
10,184 60 

3,982 68 

17,220 66 

2,197 30 

1,903 18 

600 00 

600 00 

5,145 86 
848 66 

3.846 00 
4,896 00 
9,717 76 

14,907 66 

11,218 28 

6,900 00 

13,420 00 

7,256 96 

1,618 00 

300 00 

2,029 62 

9,069 68 

2,700 00 

600 00 

2,400 00 

8.169 76 
16,699 40 

11,931 72 
7,800 00 

15,133 20 

2,552 66 

2,002 60 

300 00 

2,773 02 



Plantation Missions from 18^4. to 1864. 321 



Statistics from 1844 to 1864 (Continued). 



Year. 



1854 

t8S4 
t854 
1854 
^8.54 
1854 
1854 
t854 
1854 
'854 



i8S4 
185s 
185s 
1855 
185s 
t8S5 
185s 
185s 
t855 
t855 
185s 
t8S5 
t8S5 
t85S 
^855 
[856 
[856 
[856 
[856 
[856 
[8s6 
[856 
1856 
[856 
[8156 
[856 
1856 
1856 
1856 
[856 
1857 
[857 
i8S7 



Conference. 



Tennessee 

Memphis 

Mississippi 

Louisiana 

Virginia 

North Carolina. 

Georgia 

South Carolina. 

Alabama 

Florida 

Texas 

East Texas 

Ai-kansas 

South Carolina. 

St. Louis 

Tennessee 

Memphis 

Virginia.. , 

Ark. & Wachita 

Mississippi 

North Carolina. 

East Texas 

Alabama 

Florida 

Louisiana 

Texas 

Georgia 

St. Louis 

Holston 

Tennessee 

Virginia 

Ark. & Wachita 

Memphis 

Mississippi 

North Carolina. 
South Carolina. 

Alabama 

Florida 

Louisiana 

East Texas 

Texas 

Georgia 

St. Louis 

Tennessee 

Holston 



Missions. 


Members. 


Missiona- 
ries, 


7 


2,187 


7 


14 


3,196 


15 


23 


5,886 


24 


10 


3,606 


II 


5 


2,496 


5 


S 


2,632 


5 


28 


9,14s 


31 


26 


1 1, .546 


32 


20 


6,215 


21 


6 


1,324 


6 


11 


902 


10 


2 


453 


2 


3 


319 


3 


25 


10,523 


32 


I 


278 


I 


8 


2,368 


8 


19 


4,203 


20 


6 


2,121 


6 


3 


321 


3 


23 


5,426 


25 


6 


2,981 


6 


3 


408 


3 


21 


7,578 


21 


6 


1,059 


6 


13 


3,838 


H 


13 


848 


13 


27 


8,031 


29 


2 


1,200 


2 


I 


401 


I 


8 


2,621 


7 


6 


2,120 


6 


6 


1,691 


5 


20 


4,513 


18 


26 


5,651 


19 


6 


2,161 


6 


24 


9,982 


30 


34 


8,487 


33 


II 


1,578 


9 


9 


3,232 


9 


2 


322 


2 


5 


921 


5 


24 


8,214 


21 


2 


1,231 


2 


7 


2,531 


6 


I 


421 


I 



Amount 
Appropri'ed. 



$4,083 38 

7,Soi 64 
4,385 68 
2,923 30 
3,000 00 

3,000 GO 

11,265 86 

15,188 06 

13,980 50 

3,082 34 

2,305 80 

600 GO 

600 00 

15,375 00 

300 00 

5,514 66 
8,965 30 
3,600 00 
900 00 
7,821 82 
3,600 00 
1,372 56 

15,522 74 
2,726 72 
2,901 54 
1,866 66 

12,636 20 

600 00 

300 00 

6,138 24 

3,600 00 

3,990 02 

5,133 32 

7,700 00 

3,000 00 

18,275 44 

20,933 32 

3,896 40 

6,110 98 

600 00 

3,000 00 

14,410 34 

600 00 

5,615 48 
300 00 



322 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

Statistics from 1844 to 1864 (Continued). 



Year. 



1857 
1857 
1857 
1857 
1857 
1857 
1857 
1857 
1857 
1857 
1857 
1857 
1857 
1858 
1858 
1858 
1858 

x8=;8 
1858 
1858 
1858 
i8::8 
1858 
1858 
1858 
1858 
1858 
1858 
1858 
1859 
1859 
1859 

1859 
1859 
1859 
1859 
1859 
1859 
1859 
1859 
1859 
1859 
1859 
1859 
1859 



Conference. 



Memphis 

Mississippi 

Virginia 

North Carolina. 
South Carolina. , 

Georgia 

Alabama 

Florida 

Texas , 

East Texas 

Arkansas 

Wachita 

Louisiana 

South Carolina. 

St. Louis 

Tennessee 

Holston 

Memphis 

Mississippi 

Louisiana 

Virginia 

North Carolina. 

Georgia 

Alabama 

Florida 

Texas 

East Texas 

Arkansas 

Wachita , 

St. Louis 

Tennessee 

Holston 

Memphis 

Mississippi 

Louisiana 

Virginia 

North Carolina. 

Georgia 

Alabama 

Florida 

Texas 

East Texas 

Arkansas 

Wachita 

South Carolina. 



Missions. 



24 

29 

9 

7 

27 

23 

32 

8 

15 
4 
5 
S 

10 

28 

I 

8 

2 

18 

32 

10 

13 

9 

28 

35 
7 

14 
7 
4 
5 
2 

10 

3 

19 

35 

14 

16 

10 

40 

38 

12 

27 

9 

7 

14 
31 



Members. 



4,291 
5.984 
2,857 
2,431 
1 1 ,036 
7,891 
8,301 

1,384 
897 
760 

934 

581 

3,512 

12,102 

275 
2,678 

324 
4.579 
6,061 

1,928 

1,483 
2,298 

8,364 

7,583 

1,624 

960 

694 

391 

434 

334 

2,618 

408 

4.057 
6,289 
2,01 3 

3,539 

2,127 

10,734 

8,381 

2,878 

1,658 

781 

626 

922 

9,104 



Missiona- 
ries. 



Amount 
Appropri'ed. 



33 
30 

8 
6 

33 

22 

30 
7 

14 
3 
5 
5 

10 

34 
I 
8 
2 

20 

34 
9 

II 
8 

29 

32 
6 

12 
6 
4 
4 
2 

10 

ii 
36 
14 
15 
10 

43 
39 
13 

25 
7 

6 

12 
37 



$ 8,197 94 

7.137 10 

11,666 66 

6,400 70 

16,023 52 

12,396 26 

18,144 74 

4,100 36 

3,821 92 

2,524 78 
2,368 62 
2,732 82 

5.331 84 
18,755 34 

300 00 

5.474 42 

600 00 

7.551 26 

9,491 20 

5,142 06 

14,294 18 

5,418 76 

15,430 02 

22,486 46 

4,029 44 

5.173 86 

2,003 32 

1,628 12 

3.333 32 
600 00 

4,626 90 
900 00 

7,683 78 
10,200 00 

4,534 58 
14,588 44 

7,058 44 
16,420 66 
25,849 10 

3.332 80 
6,451 80 
4,133 20 
1,568 80 
4,000 00 

18,128 38 



Plantation Missions from 184^ to 1864.. 323 
Statistics from 1844 to 1864 (Continued). 



Conference. 



St. Louis 

Louisville 

Tennessee 

Holston 

Memphis 

Mississippi 

Louisiana 

Virginia 

North Carolina. 
South Carolina. 

Georgia 

Alabama 

Florida 

Texas 

East Texas 

Arkansas 

Wachita 

South Carolina, 

Louisville 

Tennessee 

Holston 

Memphis 

Mississippi 

Louisiana 

Virginia 

North Carolina. 

Georgia 

Florida 

Alabama* 

Texas 

East Texas* . . . 

Arkansas 

Wachita 

Louisville* , . . . 

Tennessee 

Holston 

Memphis 

Mississippi 

Louisiana 

Virginia 

North Carolina. 
South Carolina. 
Georgia 



Missions. 


Members. 


Missiona- 
ries. 


2 


431 


2 


5 


983 


5 


13 


3,417 


12 


4 


593 


4 


24 


4.093 


23 


46 


7,659 


48 


16 


2,957 


18 


20 


4,587 


20 


12 


3,259 


12 


33 


10,231 


38 


38 


11,071 


41 


40 


9,208 


40 


II 


2,913 


10 


29 


1,761 


29 


8 


824 


8 


8.. 


;■ 674 


7 


20 * 


1,226 


18 


38 


10,928 


42 


4 


928 


4 


16 


3,557 


14 


4 


674 


4 


22 


4,124 


21 


42 


8,061 


43 


13 


2,633 


13 


20 


4,492 


20 


14 


3,264 


13 


39 


11,125 


41 


10 


2,821 


9 


40 


9,208 


40 


32 


2,045 


30 


8 


824 


8 


7 


654 


7 


20 


1,221 


18 


4 


928 


4 


IS 


3,451 


13 


5 


711 


5 


20 


4,110 


18 


39 


7,432 


40 


14 


2,433 


H 


18 


4,362 


18 


16 


4,166 


IS 


26 


8,737 


32 


38 


10,931 


39 



Amount 
Appropri'ed. 



$ 600 00 
2,500 00 

5,140 86 

1,200 00 

7,023 06 

14,400 00 

6,333 30 

13,558 44 

6,558 44 

16,309 02 

19,292 04 

27,091 66 

3,490 46 

8,702 62 

2,400 GO 

2,400 00 

2,545 32 

9,692 62 

I,300 00 

4,800 00 

1,200 00 

6,300 00 

8,733 50 

3,900 00 

- 6,000 00 

3,318 14 

11,838 52 

2,966 28 

27,091 66 

4,429 33 
2,400 00 
2,100 00 
2,540 02 
1,200 00 
4,500 00 
2,691 48 
6,000 00 
11,700 00 
4,200 00 
4,200 00 

4,424 75 
10,285 44 
13,798 20 



* Figures for this year not given. These are the figures for preceding year. 



324 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

Statistics from 1844 to 1864 (Continued), 



Year. 



1862 
1862 
1862 
1862 
1862 
1S62 
1863 
1863 
1863 
1863 
1863 
1863 
1863 
1863 
1863 
1863 
1S63 
1863 
1863 
1863 
1864 
1864 
1864 
1864 
1864 
1864 
1864 
1864 
1864 
1864 
1864 
1864 
1864 



Conference. 



Alabama 

Florida 

Texas 

East Texas. . . . 

Arkansas 

Wachita 

Tennessee 

Holston 

Memphis 

Mississippi . 

Louisiana 

Virginia 

North Carolina 
South Carolina 

Georgia 

Alabama 

Florida 

Texas 

East Texas .... 

Arkansas 

Louisville 

Holston 

Virginia 

North Carolina 
South Cai-olina 

Georgia 

Montgomery. . 

Mobile 

Florida 

Texas 

East Texas 

Arkansas 

Wachita 



Missions. 


Members. 


Missiona- 
ries. 


36 


8,962 


35 


8 


2,652 


7 


28 


2,011 


27 


9 


868 


9 


7 
21 


654 
1,241 


7 
18 


15 


1,351 


13 


4 


684 


4 


22 


3,912 


20 


36 


7,302 


36 


12 


2,332 


12 


12 


3,124 


II 


14 


3,821 


14 


25 




29 


39 


11,611 


39 


37 


9,020 


37 


10 


2,804 


9 


28 


2,011 


27 


9 


868 


9 


7 


654 


7 


2 


613 


2 


3 


694 


3 


14 


3,226 


14 


13 


3,654 


13 


29 


* 13,373 


32 


37 


11,421 


36 


22 


5,153 


22 


23 


5,684 


33 


9 


2,703 


9 


29 


2,213 


27 


10 


963 


•.; 9 


8 


684 


■" 8 


18 


1,172 


16 



Amount 
Appropri'ed. 



$10,800 GO 
2,400 00 
8,400 00 
2,700 00 
2,100 00 
5,400 00 
3,900 00 
1,200 00 
6,648 46 
10,800 00 
3,600 00 
3,300 00 
4,200 00 
27,000 18 

45,460 34 
31,311 SO 
2,700 00 
8,400 00 
2,700 00 
2,100 00 
600 00 

900 GO 
8,400 00 
3,900 00 

42,475 80 

11,700 00 

24,508 00 

26,938 16 

2,700 00 

8,100 00 

2,700 00 

2,400 00 

4,800 00 



*Th!s includes the newly established mission in Charleston, which num- 
bered 3,842. 

In the foregoing table we have placed the Con- 
ferences in the order in which plantation missions 
were established. The collection^ taken for the 
purpose extended in some few instances to the 
year 1864, but the last year of the civil war af- 



Plantation Missions from 18^4. to 186/j.. 325 

forded no opportunity for missionary operations of 
any kind. In 1864 the Alabama Conference ap- 
pears in the divided territory, forming " Mobile " 
and " Montgomery " Conferences, and the aggre- 
gate contributions of these bodies are included 
under "Alabama." 

It will be seen by this table that the highest fig- 
ures were recorded in 1861, the first year of the 
civil war. At that time there were 329 missions, 
327 missionaries, 66,559 members, and $86,359.20 
appropriated for the " plantation" missions to the 
slaves in the South. As increasing operations of 
the Federal army reduced the territory of these 
Conferences, the work of the missionaries was 
suspended, and ultimately it was destroyed by the 
results of the war. 

It must be remembered also that many of the 
Conferences had no extensive communities of Af- 
rican slaves, and therefore the " plantation mis- 
sion " was not in existence. The gospel was 
preached to the negroes in common with the 
whites everywhere throughout the South, and in 
many places, smaller stations especially, a negro 
mission was attached to the work of the pastor, 
and once a month or oftener the pastor gave a 
part of the Sabbath to the " colored charge." In 
regular stations of the larger classes the afternoon 
was usually a special time allotted to the negroes, 
and the only exception to this rule was in the large 
cities, where the negroes were sufficiently numer- 
ous to form p.astoral charges of their own. To 



326 



The Gosfel among the Slaves. 



those experienced and often able ministers were 
regularly appointed. 

The reader will be interested in the table which 
follows. We have taken the appropriations made 
by each Conference from 1829 to 1864, and by 
dividing the time into two periods we are able to 
see the work accomplished prior to and subse- 
quent to 1844. As in the table of details, the 
Conferences appear in the list in the order in 
which plantation missions were established. 

Amounts Appropriated for Plantation Missions from 
1829 to 1864. 



Conference. 


1829 to 1844. 


1844 to 1864. 


Total. 


South Carolina 

Georgia 


$ 58,879 81 

41,980 80 

14,524 56 

19,302 79 
8,683 45 

17,366 36 

2,400 00 

2,110 70 

1,104 50 

905 90 


$ 315,197 18 

255,050 72 

83,094 14 

130,773 06 

120,751 00 

340,166 67 

109,825 00 

66,316 53 

27,804 22 

46,416 42 

26,133 86 

70,769 06 

3,900 00 

6,700 00 

68,066 88 

9,891 48 

25,351 48 


$ 374,076 99 
297,030 52 


Tennessee 

Mississippi 

Memphis 


97,618 70 
150,075 85 
129,434 45 


Alabama 


357,533 03 


Virsrinia 


112,225 00 


North Carolina.. . . 
Arkansas 


68,427 23 
28,908 72 


Florida 


47,322 32 


East Texas .... 


26,133 86 


Louisiana 




70,769 06 


St Louis 




3,900 00 


Louisville 




6,700 00 


Texas 




68,066 88 


Holston 




9,891 48 


Wachita 




25,351 48 








Total 


$167,258 87 


$1,706,207 70 


$1,873,466 27 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Traits of Christian Character. 

IN no land, east or west, has the gospel won a 
greater number of conquests than those record- 
ed by the missionaries to the slaves in the South. 
The character of the negro in his savage state we 
have seen described by thoughtful and impartial 
observers. His removal from his native country 
to the United States, accomplished by the basest 
of treachery and the crudest of means in the great 
majority of instances, only transferred him from a 
heathen to a Christian country. In the nature of 
the case it was impossible for many of the direct 
blessings of civilization to reach him as a slave on 
a large plantation, cut off from all means of im- 
provement and from all associations likely to ele- 
vate his moral character. 

It was in this relation to American society, that 
of a transplanted heathen, that the negro became 
a subject of philanthropic labor and self-sacrific- 
ing toil. Unlike the stolid Chinaman, the negro 
has a temperament eminently adapted to religious 
emotions. Forms and ceremonies go for little, 
because to whatever extent these sons of Africa 
are capable of appreciating them, to that extent do 
they relegate them to the fetichism and voodoo 
worship of their native land. 

(327) 



328 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

But the religion that one c^n feel and enjoy and 
that cripples no sense of enjoyment by the rigid 
enforcement of an iron-bound decorum is the reli- 
gion that captures the African. When St. Paul 
said "we are saved by hope," he uttered a senti- 
ment that touches the lowly sons of toil at every 
point of their pilgrimage. " There's a better day 
a coming" are the words of an old refrain that 
have girded up the loins of millions who were just 
about to faint by the wayside. 

When the Methodist preachers came with stir- 
ring songs and earnest exhortations, and, above 
all, when they followed St. Paul's example and 
told a thrilling experience, the dusky children of 
Africa surrendered all they had to surrender and 
became Christians of the best type that they knew. 
Shall any man call in question the genuineness 
and sincerity of their profession? Let us listen 
to the testimony recorded in the amazing history 
of four millions of peaceable, quiet, and obedient 
slaves, exercising the most sacred trusts for four 
years while a war was waged for their emancipa- 
tion from bondage to their masters. Let us hear 
the testimony of wise and good men, thorough 
judges of human character, who have described 
the virtues of these humble followers of Christ, 
and have acknowledged themselves debtors even 
to the poor slave whose faithfulness enlarged the 
blessings of God conferred upon their religious 
instructors. 

From the notable persons whose memorial can- 



Traits of Christian Character. 329 

not perish from the earth, we shall select a few as 
examples of great numbers for whom we can find 
no space in these pages. 

First among the witnesses to the fidelity of the 
converted African we shall introduce Bishop Ca- 
pers. A man of large heart, sympathizing with 
the poor, the lowly, and the distressed everywhere, 
his philanthropy had a practical turn, and he did 
more than any other man of his time for the reli-r 
gious welfare of the slaves. From his pen we 
take the following sketch of 

Castile Selby. 

" I can call to mind no other person of our coIt 
ored society of that early day, who, of nearly Cas-. 
tile's age, was estimated as much as he, though 
there were some very worthy men among them. 
The weight and force of his character were made 
up of humility, sincerity, simplicity, integrity, and 
consistency; for all of which he was remarkable 
not only among his fellows of the colored society 
in Charleston, but I might say among all whom I 
have ever known. He was one of those honest 
men who need no proof of it. . . . Just what 
he seemed to be he invariably was — neither more 
nor less. Add to this a thorough piety which, in- 
deed, was the root and stock of all his virtues, and 
you will find elements for the character of no com- 
mon man; and such was Castile Selby. 
Love of order was a ruling passion with Daddy 
Castile. Not only was the house he lived in and 



330 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

the few inferior articles of furniture it contained 
kept in order — that is, clean and to rights — but 
there was order in that old tarpaulin hat and well- 
patched linsey-woolsey coat, which marked the old 
cartman as he trudged the streets from day to day 
with his old bay horse and well-worn cart hauling 
wood. And then there was order in that clean, 
unpatched, but still linsey-woolsey coat, and that 
blue-striped handkerchief tied about his head, in 
which he was to be seen at the house of God, morn- 
ing, afternoon, and evening, on the Sabbath day. 
" If I ever knew a man who was so completely 
satisfied with his condition as to prefer no change 
whatever, that man was Castile Selby. His dwell- 
ing might have been better, his apparel better, and 
he might have relieved himself of much fatigue 
and exposure, but he deemed it unbecoming. On 
these and kindred subjects I knew his feelings 
well, having had much conversation with him, and 
telling him plainly I thought him wrong. But I 
could not convince him, while he satisfied me he 
was governed by a sense of duty, the fitness and 
force of which he was better prepared to judge 
than perhaps I was. For example: Noticing the 
meanness of his clothing, and expressing a fear 
that it might not be comfortable, 'No, master,' 
he said, ' these old clothes make me quite com- 
fortable. They just suit my business, and so they 
just suit me.' Remarking on his Sunday clothes, 
that he might improve them a little, 'Ah, sir,' he 
answered, ' don't you see how our colored people 



Traits of Christian Character. 331 

are turning fools after dress and fashion, just as if 
they were white. They want somebody to hold 
them back. I dress for my color. Besides that, 
sir, how can I take what the Lord is pleased to 
give me to do some litde good with and put it on 
my back ? ' 

*' But it was his indefatigable industry, not al- 
lowing of a reasonable suspension of his labors in 
bad weather, which most frequently induced our 
most friendly disputes 

*' * Well, well. Father Castile,' I would say, * out 
again in the rain with that old coat ! Why in the 
world will you expose yourself so ? And are not 
your legs swelled even now? ' 

" 'Ah, sir, I thought you would scold if you 
happened to meet me. But no matter, master. 
The rain won't hurt me: I am used to it.' 

'* ' But it will hurt you ; it must hurt you. And 
I dare say those swelled legs came by just such 
exposure as this. You ought to be at home ; and 
do, pray, now go home and keep yourself com- 
fortable.' 

"'For your sake, sir, I would go home, but 
several families are looking for me to haul them 
wood to-day, and I must not disappoint them.' 

" 'And who will haul them wood after you have 
killed yourself?' 

" ' I won't kill myself, sir. I have been used to 
this all my life, and use, you know, is second na- 
ture. I never find myself any better for lying up. 
But, master, aren't you out too? ' 
22 



332 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

" ' Yes, I am; but it is only for a little time, and 
I am fully protected; but here you are regularly 
at it for a day's work, with no protection from the 
weather but your hat and that threadbare blanket 
overcoat. You really ought to go home. 
You can't stand it, Father Castile, and you ought 
not to try to stand it. Do, pray, go home.' 

" 'Ah, master, they say, " better wear out than 
rust out." There are too many lazy people rust- 
ing out for me to lie up because it rains a little. 
I can't help working, sir, and I don't 
want to help it. It is the lot it has pleased God to 
give me, and it suits me best.' 

"As the infirmities of age increased on my old 
friend, and while his habits of continual industry 
seemed indomitable, I became anxious about him; 
and after conversing with several of our brethren, 
and finding them of my own mind with respect to 
him, I determined to adopt a course which I sup- 
posed must prove effectual. I told him that while 
his long course of holy living had made him 
friends of the principal members of the Church, 
who shared with me the kindest feelings for him, 
and were more than willing to provide for all his 
wants, it placed him in a position with respect to 
the colored society which we thought required 
both for himself and them that his time should be 
differently employed from what it had been. We 
were fully persuaded that it was our duty to res- 
cue him from his cart, and put it in his power to 
employ all his time in a way which we believed 



Traits of Christian Character. 333 

would prove more to the glory of God; and that 
was (while he should be able to go about), to 
visit the sick, aged, and infirm, and look after the 
flock generally, praying with them, and doing 
them all the spiritual good in his power. For his 
comfortable support during the remainder of his 
life, such and such rehable gentlemen would 
pledge themselves, I would pledge myself, and 
the stewards of the Church would see that he 
lacked nothing. 

" 'Now, my old friend,' said I, 'we want you 
to sell your horse and cart immediately and use the 
money as you think proper. You shall want for 
nothing. And let it be your only business to help 
all the souls you can to heaven.' 

"He received this proposition with profound 
sensibility and many thanks, but could be induced 
only to add that he would think of it. It was just 
before my journey to attend the General Confer- 
ence, and on my return to Charleston I had 
scarcely reached my door before I saw Castile 
Selby, just as aforetime, seated on his throne, 
the old cart. 

"'Ah, master,' said he, 'the very thing you 
would do for me to make me useful would hinder 
more than it would help me. It would make some 
envious, some would call me parson and say the 
white people had spoiled me ; and nobody would 
take me to be the same Castile I have always been. 
There is nothing better for me than this same old 
cart.' " 



334 ^/^^ Gospel anio^ig the Slaves. 

Thus far Bishop Capers wrote. Castile died in 
1849. ^^ ^^^ death the Southern Christian Ad- 
vocate says ; 

About the time Mr. Polk, ex-President of the United States, 
breathed his last, there was to be seen in this citj [Charleston] 
a venerable patriarch among the colored members of the M. E. 
Church, South, Ijing on his dying bed, extensively known as 
"Father Castile." He has been for fifty-seven j'ears an up- 
right, consistent, and useful professor of religion. . . He 
has been honored with the respect and conlidence of every 
minister of the South Carolina Conference who has been sta- 
tioned in this city during the lapse of half a century. Eishop 
Capers, in particular, has ever felt for him a warm personal at- 
tachment, well deserved on the part of the patriarchal class 
leader. 

We remember a scene we witnessed some twenty-eight 
years ago, in what was supposed to be at the time the dying 
chamber of Dr. Capers. Given over by his accomplished phy- 
sician. Dr. S. H. Dickson, surrounded by his weeping family 
and nurses, the Doctor had spoken, as he thought, his farewell 
words. At that moment Father Castile entered the room. " I 
am glad to see you," said his sick friend, "you find me near 
my end; but kneel down and turn your face to the wall and 
pray for me." Many a tear fell during the solemn moments of 
that prayer. By what the philosopher would call a singular co- 
incidence, but what the Christian resolves by the first principles 
of his religion into an anstver to fray er, the Doctor passed the 
crisis while the good old man was on his knees. In a few mo- 
ments he said: " I feel better." 

Father Castile died in perfect peace after little or no illness, 
and with no apparent suffering, in the eighty-eighth year of his 
age. A funeral sermon was preached in Bethel Church over 
his remains by the presiding elder of the Charleston District, 
and all that was mortal of the good man was followed to the 
grave by a large assemblage of his friends. 

In the city of Charleston there were many faith- 
ful negro men and women whose lives were con- 



Traits of Christian Character. 335 

formed to the principles of the doctrine of Christ. 
Prominent among these was one who was popular- 
ly called "Maum Rachel." Of her and other 
noteworthy members of the Church, Dr. A. M. 
Chreitzberg furnishes the following notes : 

Her name was Rachel Wells. She lived in Anson Street, 
Charleston, and was a member of Trinity Church. She hap- 
pened to a severe accident while coming down the steps of the 
gallery, which laid her upon a bed of agonizing pain at the 
very time that a number of the ablest of Methodist ministers 
were in the city and a great revival was in progress at the 
Church. Bishop Capers, knowing what a great deprivation it 
must be to her to stay away from the exercises, called to see 
her. He said to her: "Sorry I am, very sorry for you, Maum 
Rachel; and the more, that this sad accident should have hap- 
pened just now, when we have such good meetings every night 
at Trinity. You would be so happy if you could be with us 
there." 

"I hear ob de meetin', sir," she answered, "an' t'ank God 
fur 'em fur you' sake; but as fur me, I hab no need o' dem. I 
couldn' do widout Trin'ty Chu'ch 'fo'e, an' while I well I neber 
off my seat dar, day nur night, but since dis t'ing come 'pon 
me you call bad acciden', I hab no need ob Trin'ty Chu'ch. 
All he do fur me wid de meetin' befo'-time, he do fur me now 
widout de meetin', an' mo'e too, bless de Lo'd! " 

" Could a synod of divines," says Bishop Wightman, in speak- 
ing of these words, " have set forth more strikingly the true doc- 
trine in regard to the ' means of grace ' than Maum Rachel 
did.'' They were necessary for her in ordinary circumstances, 
but providentially precluded from them, the blessed Jesus had 
a shorter way to her than by Trinity Church. What a depth of 
divine philosophy is unfolded in the thought, so clearly con- 
ceived, though uttered in broken English!" 

Maum Rachel was, at the time of her death, the oldest mem- 
ber of the Charleston Methodist Church, white or colored. 
She was the first colored member who joined the Society, at the 
time when the first i-egular meetings were held at the house of 
her master, Mr. Edgar Wells. She saw the foundation laid of 



33^ The Gospel among the Slaves. 

the First Cumberland Street Church, a year or two after the 
close of the Revolution. She outlived two generations of Meth- 
odists^ — " a beautiful example of the power of religion to make 
a servant upright and happy." 

Another of these saintly old colored women who adorned 
Charleston Methodism was " Maum Mary Ann Berry." Dr. 
Capers gives us the picture of her, clear, beautiful, strong, a 
picture before which the best of us feel like uncovering: "I 
never knew a female, of any circumstance in life, who better 
deserved the appellation of deaconess than Mary Ann Berry; 
one who seemed to live only to be useful, and who, to the ut- 
most of her ability, and beyond her ability, served the Church 
and poor. And I might say, too, that what she did was always 
exceedingly well done, directed by an intelligent mind as well 
as a sanctified spirit; so that, humble as was her position in 
common society, she was really a mother in Israel. Her meek- 
ness, her humility, and a peculiar gentleness and softness of 
spirit, which distinguished her at all times, might have done 
honor to a Christian lady of any rank." 

And here again he gives us the picture — pen painted, it is 
true, yet how vivid and touching — of Maum Nanny Coates. 
What an example to inspire zeal in welldoing! "Did I men- 
tion Maum Nanny Coates.? Bless old Maum Nanny! If I had 
been a painter going to represent meekness personified, I should 
have gotten her to sit for the picture. It was shortly after I 
had been appointed Secretary for the Missions, that, being in 
Charleston at the house of my brother, as we were sitting to- 
gether in the parlor one evening, Maum Nanny entered. I 
wish I could show her to you just as she presented herself, in 
her long-eared white cap kerchief and apron of the olden time, 
with her eyes on the floor, her arms slightly folded before her, 
stepping softly towai-d me. She held between her finger and 
thumb a dollar bill, and, courtesying as she approached, she ex- 
tended her hand with the money. ' Will you please, sir,' she 
said in subdued accents and a happy countenance, ' take this 
little mite for the blessed missionaries.'' ' I took it, pronounced 
that it was a dollar, and said: 'Maum Nanny, can you afford to 
give as much as this.?' 'O yes, sir,' she replied, lifting her 
eyes, which until then had been upon the floor, ' it is only a tri- 
fle, sir. I could afford to give a great deal more, if I — I had it.' " 



Traits of Cht'istian Character. 337 

These three women were all freed by their owners for their 
faithfulness and virtue. 

And while Dr. Capei's was writing of his " friends " in 
Charleston, Bishop Andrew, too, was paying many feeling and 
beautiful tributes to his friends in Wilmington. Writing from 
that same Conference — the North Carolina at Washington — 
where he had made so noble an effort in their behalf, he says: 
"And then among the blacks there was our faithful old choris- 
ter, Roger Hazle, who used to set the tunes for us. I have his 
image before me now as I used to see him when I gave out the 
hymn, rise in his place in the gallery, hymn book in hand, and| 
set the tunes for the whole congregation. And I remember 
too, how I used to stand in the pulpit, weary and hoarse at th 
close of my third sermon, and when I gave out the last hymn 
how the colored people used to sing with so much sweetness 
and power that it seemed almost enough to raise the shingles 
from the roof. And who that knew Wilmington in days of 
yore would fail to remember in this connection old Will Camp- 
bell, venerable for his years and greatly beloved for' his consist- 
ent piety .^ His record was on high — he was an honest, guile- 
less, simple-hearted Christian, a man of sterling integrity and 
unblemished reputation. And with these were associated many 
others of great worth who filled up their humble stations in so- 
ciety and passed quietly away from earth to heaven." 

One of the most pious and devoted of these colored mem- 
bers at Wilmington was one Bishop Andrew does not mention 
in this letter, but who is often referred to by Bishop Capers 
and by Mrs. Margaret M. Martin, of Columbia, S. C, in her re- 
ligious writings. This Avas Uncle Harry Merrick, a figure as 
prominent in the Church circles of that place sixty years ago as 
any in it, black or white. He occupied a front seat in the gallery, 
and that seat, from the time of the erection of the church build- 
ing almost to the day of the old saint's death, was scarcely ever 
vacant at any of the meetings, day or night. He could pray 
and sing. O how he could sing! " I've come to see Jesus," 
and " Band of Music," could ever any one sing them as Harry 
Merrick did.'' Mrs. Martin speaks of hearing him after he had 
grown very old and his voice was quavering. She says: " We 
have a delightful choir in Wilmington, one of the finest I know 
anywhere, and generally it swells in its full tide of song even 



338 l^he Gosfel among the Slaves. 

above the music of the congregation; but at that time jou 
could catch it but at intervals of one single note of silvery 
sweetness. Much as I love line music, I confess there Efnci 
then I did not regret that old Harry Merrick's dear old cracked 
voice from the gallery was heard above all the rest. Nobody 
listened to it but felt there were notes there that had gone right 
up to make up the heavenly diapason. To the Christian's 
heart, at least, it was ' harmony, it was heavenly harmony.' " 

Harry Merrick was a power in prayer as well as in song. 
Often, while the white mourners were at the altar, he was 
called on to pray for them ; and there, kneeling at his place in 
the gallery, he sent forth mighty supplications to the throne of 
grace. He has long since gone to mingle his buglelike notes 
with the choir celestial. 

Dr. John W. Hanner, a veteran of the Tennes- 
see Conference, still lingering along the shores of 
time, furnishes us with some pleasant notes of 
*'Aunt Joycie" and others among the African 
contingent in Tennessee and Alabama. The 
manner of preaching, peculiar to some of these 
sable orators, is thus described by Dr. Hanner: 

In 1843 the Tennessee Conference included Huntsville, Ala. 
Here we had a large colored membership to whom we regu- 
larly preached and administered all the rites of the Church. 
Some of these negroes were very intelligent, and many of them 
far advanced in the spiritual life. ' They had a chapel built spe- 
cially for their use, and it was always crowded on the Sunday 
afternoons of the regular appointment. 

On one of these occasions, going to preach to them, I found 
the house packed and running over. As I advanced toward 
the pulpit I saw a colored preacher sitting in it. He met me 
and asked permission to preach that time. I readily consented, 
for I thought it advisable for them to hear one of their own 
race occasionally. 

After singing and prayer the preacher began : 

" I don't know why de Lord called dis unwordy sarvant to 
preach dis fun'ral; but I's got it to do. My tex' is in de River- 



Traits of Christian Character. 339 

lation, ' Behol', I stan' at de doo' an' knock; if any man open de 
doo', I will come in an' sup wid him, an' he wid me.' 

" I'm gwine to preach de fun'ral o' Tom Cook. You all 
knowed Tom Cook, how weeked he war. He played cards, an' 
de fiddle, an' danced, an' tole lies, an' cheated, an' took t'ings 
w'at didn't b'long to him, an' drunk whiskj. Poo' Tom! he's 
dead an' gone to hell ; an' his wife's dar too ! I'm gwine ter preach 
bofi dere fun'rals to wonct." And preach them he did, with a 
startling candor few would have had the courage to imitate. 

" I'll tell you how de Lord knocks," he concluded. " One 
day I was gwine to mill, an' a voice spoke to me from de sky: 
' George! George Purdom!' I looked up to see whar de voice 
come from, an' dar I seed twelve angels standin' roun' de sun. 
Ebery one had a watch in his han', an' ebery one say: ' Twelve 
o'clock.' Den de divine power come down an' knock me cross 
de full lengt' o' de big road; an' I saw all my sins go down into 
hell like a gallon pot o' black dye. You sinner man, laughin' 
at me out dere, I tell you de day's gwine to come when your 
laughin'U be turned into mournin'. 

" In ole Virginny when de rich ladies ride out in de car'age 
dey take 'long a book fur to read. So de young lady open de 
book an' a voice spoke to her fum de book: ' Your gole is can- 
kered, your silber is turned to dross, but de lub o' God shall 
Stan' for^ever!' She shut de book an' begun to cry. She war 
mighty rich. She says: 'Driber, turn de car'age roun' an' 
dribe me home.' Her fader come out an' seed her cryin' an' he 
axed : ' O my daughter, w'at is de matter wid you } If you'll quit 
dis 'ligion, I'll gib you a bar'l o' gole an' a bar'l o' silber.' An' 
she said: 'Fader, de book says, "Your gole is cankered, an' 
your silber is turned to dross; but de lub o' God shall stan' for- 
eber." ' An' he begin to cry, too ; so dey boff got 'ligion. Dat's 
de way dey do t'ings in ole Virginny, whar I come from, an' 
dat's de way dey's got to do it eberywhar dey gits it. 

" Now, sinners, you hear me; if you don't repent an' git dis 
'ligion, you's gwine to hab a ram-shack-lin time o' it when deff 
comes fur you." 

His utterance of the last paragraph was vehemently fervid, 
rapid, and loud, emphasizing the right words. The effect was 
amazing. Like the trees of the forest when moved by the 
sweeping winds, his congregation swayed to and fro, their 



340 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

heads moving from side to side; then a wild, ringing shout 
burst from the throats of fully one-half of them. Evidently 
there were many who had the religion referred to, and didn't 
need to fear the coming of the pale-horse rider. 

This sermon is not given by way of caricature, but as an il- 
lustration of the deep and Intense fervor that so often swayed 
many of these exhorting sons of Ham. 

Rev. Elisha Carr, for a long time a member of the Tennessse 
Conference, spent the last years of his life doing little else save 
preaching to the negroes and catechising their ciiildren. Great 
is the debt owed him by this race. He was untiring in his ef- 
forts to bring them to the knowledge that is in Christ Jesus. 

In the days of the old time camp meetings, seats were pro- 
vided for the negroes back of the stand. One night, the ser- 
mon preached and mourners called. Brother Carr went to his 
work around the altar bearing a lighted candle. Seeing a young, 
spruce-looking negro looking on with apparently little concern, 
Brother Carr said to him : " Have you got religion? " 

" No, sir." 

"Are you trjdng to get it.?" 

" No, sir." 

" Do you wish to try.? " 

" Not now, sir." 

" Then hold this candle while I sing and pray with those who 
do wish it." And he held it, sweating freely. The place grew 
too warm for him ; next night he was a mourner. 

When catechising, Brother Carr placed the little darkies in 
line and spoke to each one by name. After the usual qviestions 
of the catechism, he often put questions not in the book. He 
was catechising on one of tiiese occasions when he suddenly 
put the question: "What's your name.?" 
Little Ben, sir." 

" Who made you.? " 

■ God, sir." f 

■ What did he make you out of.? " 
• Biscuit, sir." 

" What did he make you for.? " 

' To eat biscuit an' 'lasses an' wait on de white folks." 
It is needless to add that Brother Carr soon corrected Little 
Ben's notions of existence and dutv. 



Traits of Christian Character. 341 

Sometimes Brother Carr would ask questions and seem to 
know things that would startle his dusky audience considerably. 
It was this apparent knowledge of their various misdoings that 
caused them to regard him with a kind of superstitious awe, 
and to declare frequently that he was " kin to God." 

Rev. N. A. D. Bryant, formerly of the Tennes- 
see Conference, but in later years a resident of 
Texas, gives a number of anecdotes and reminis- 
cences of his ministerial labors among the slaves. 
Although he was a slave holder, there was no prej- 
udice against him on that account, and his course 
as a missionary to the slaves on large plantations 
was highly beneficial to the humble parishioners, 
and to their owners. 

"In my rounds as a missionary," says Mr. 
Bryant, " I met with many negroes who were 
constantly giving me striking evidences of more 
than ordinary character and ability. Some of 
them have since made their mark in the world, 
noticeably Bishop Lane, of the Colored Methodist 
Church. More than one of those on my missions 
afterward made preachers, and by no means mere 
commonplace ones. One of the best negroes I 
ever knew was Emanuel Mask. I became ac- 
quainted Vv^ith him in 1855 at his master's house in 
Fayette County, Tenn., when he was a slave. He 
was then authorized to preach the gospel among 
his people. His master, who was a noble man 
and a Christian, and who had for years evinced 
the deepest interest in the salvation of the negro 
race, gave Emanuel a written permit to go around 
the country and preach to his race. This he did 



342 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

to the great pleasure of the people everywhere, 
white as well as black, for Emanuel was an ear- 
nest and forcible speaker, and even the whites 
listened to him with profit. I frequently invited 
Emanuel to my house to preach to my slaves. 
Some members of my own family were always 
present on such occasions, and most heartily did 
they bear testimony to his wonderful ability to ar- 
range and make clear his subject, and to the apt- 
ness and fitness with which he quoted passages of 
scripture. 

"Another remarkable negro of my acquaintance 
was Silas Philips. I did not know him, however, 
until after the war. He came to La Grange, 
Tenn., soon after freedom. He had enjoyed 
both moral and religious advantages in his old 
home, and was an eloquent illustration of what the 
gospel could do for his race and of the earnest ef- 
forts of those who had sought to shed the light 
upon his way. When he came to La Grange, he 
had a modest sum of money, with which he pur- 
chased a home, and at once entered upon his 
course as a moral and useful citizen. His fine, 
manly conduct soon won the confidence and re- 
spect of all. He had been taught to read, and 
though comparatively illiterate, could, neverthe- 
less, expound the scriptures with great clearness 
and force. He soon became a prophet among his 
people. 

" Simon Hunt was another one of his race who 
deserves more than a passing notice. Simon had 



Traits of Christian Character. 343 

been born a slave, though he was only a youth 
during the war. Still he was large enough to re- 
member the earnest catechising he had received 
from the missionary. Many words, too, of the 
sermons to which he had listened had taken deep 
root in his heart. Simon was born within sight of 
my house, and I knew him from a youth up. He 
was a model in every way. Soon after freedom 
came he made the right start on the new road by 
joining the Church. Shortly thereafter he was li- 
censed to preach. He became a power among 
his people, for few preachers, white or black, sur- 
passed Simon in native eloquence. Some of his il- 
lustrations were truly astonishing. He could sweep 
an audience as the wind of the forest sweeps the 
leaves that bestrew its track. He had a fine pres- 
ence, a remarkably fine head and face, but what 
was more attractive still, he deported himself with 
manly dignity, an inbred gentleness of manner that 
none could help but admire. Wherever Simon is 
to-day, may the Lord continue to bless him and 
make him as a second Moses to his people ! 

"My pen is upon a subject in which it finds 
something more than a mere pleasure. Cheer- 
fully, heartily does it bear witness to the many fine 
traits of character, the real nobility of soul that 
distinguished so many of those who were once 
in so lowly a position among us. Tenderly, too, 
does it linger over that old time affectionate rela- 
tion that existed between so many masters and 
their slaves. I do not speak at random, but from 



344 ^^^^ Gospel among the Slaves. 

experience ; not for the sentiment of the thing, but 
on the part of truth. By inheritance and purchase 
I owned quite a number of slaves. When told, in 
1863, that they v^ere free, only ten or fifteen of my 
servants left, the rest remaining and working as 
usual. Considering the state of affairs then exist- 
ing, the excitement of the war, the commotion of 
social affairs, it w^as a wonder that many more did 
not go. The conduct of those who remained only 
stands out more forcibly. When the war came to 
an end and freedom was universally established, 
these negroes who had remained faithfully by me 
through every trial, came to me and said: 'We 
do not want to leave you. You have been a good 
master to us, and we desire still to serve you. 
Furnish us with land and mules, and we will work 
for you and for ourselves.' This was done, and 
well and faithfully for twenty-two years did they 
carry out every requirement of the new relation. 
It was only broken by my removal to Texas." 

From the pen of Rev. A. P. McFerrin, brother 
of Dr. John B. McFerrin, we have the following 
anecdotes of the family altar and the religious as- 
sociations of the slaves in Christian families. No 
one acquainted with the Southern people forty 
years ago can fail to indorse the sentiments of one 
whose testimony is valuable from whatever point 
of view it may be considered: 

Another means of grace outside the preaching in the white 
chtirches and the evangelical work on the plantations was in 
the family praj'er meeting. There were many religious mas- 
ters who, night and morning, regularly assembled their fami- 



Traits of Christian Character. 345 

lies and also summoned their slaves to prajer. And this 
brings to mind an interesting incident of my boyhood days. 

Old Uncle Dick was a native African, brought to this coun- 
try when a boy. He was a true and earnest Chiistian. My 
fathei", Rev. James McFerrin, who was a member of the Ten- 
nessee Conference, had, on a certain morning when out quite 
early, occasion to speak some special words to Uncle Dick con- 
cerning some matter that had not gone well. It was not a seri- 
ous matter, anyway, but Uncle Dick was very sensitive, and 
had become highly wrought up in his feelings. Just at that 
moment the summons went forth: "Come in to prayer." Fa- 
ther read the scripture lesson, followed by a hymn, which was 
always in the order of family service, and then prayed a fervent 
prayer. Uncle Dick was so deeply moved that when the prayer 
ended he arose weeping and almost shouting. Forgotten now 
were his wounded feelings of the moment before, and in his 
deep joy he almost embraced my father. The incident reached 
every heart and brought the utmost peace between the two 
principals of the morning scene. 

The sounding of the horn, morning and evening, was the 
signal for all to come to prayer, big and little. Such a family 
life as this was sure to bring about the most beneficial results, 
especially where both master and mistress took a direct interest 
in the welfare of every soul, which was often the case. 

Mentioning the morning and evening horn blowing calls up 
another touching incident of an old slave. At the death of my 
father, when the estate was divided, an aged negro by the name 
of Charles fell to the share of my brother, the late William M. 
McFem-in, of the Memphis Conference. In time, through age, 
Charles became superannuated, spending the evening of life in 
and around his quiet cabin. One afternoon, about the going 
down of the sun of a serene and beautiful day. Uncle Charles 
stood near his gate, leaning against the fence, a few feet from 
his cabin door, earnestly gazing upon the heavens. Suddenly, 
on looking up, he cried out: " Hear! hear! de ho'n is blowin'! " 
He then turned slowly toward his cabin, lay down on his bed, 
and in a few moments gently breathed away his life. Had the 
" horn " called him from earthly prayers to eternal praises in 
his heavenly Master's kingdom .'' 

There can be no just conception of Southern slavery with its 



34^ The Gospel among the Slaves. 

many modifying and qualifying influences, without its qualify- 
ing adjective of domestication^ making it what it really was, do- 
mestic slavery^ with rare exceptions. 

A native of the South, with a lifetime lengthened out to the 
allotment of man's earthly pilgrimage, and with fair opportu- 
nity of forming a judgment from many standpoints, the writer 
is free to express the opinion that the people of the South, taken 
as a whole, white and black, were, prior to the war, the best to 
do people morally, socially, and religiously that the world has 
ever beheld. No people of equal extent of population and like 
ample surroundings ever lived so free from want, starvation, 
inhuman oppression, and those grosser iniquities that degrade 
and brutalize humanity. 

Next to wife and children the slave owner's sympathy and 
concern were for the welfare of the colored members of his 
family. Never has the ownership of slaves, as held by South- 
ern masters, been so sadly misunderstood as by those unfamil- 
iar with its true import. No intelligent owner of slaves, as held 
in the South, ever conceived the idea of being possessed of an 
absolute property in the life and soul of his slave, as repre- 
sented by some whose opinions were formed simply on the 
vague representations of such as really never had a true con- 
ception of the reality of the situation. The owner held propri- 
etorship in the product of his slaves' labor, and was accounta- 
ble to the laws of the land and public sentiment for the perpe- 
tration of wrongs inconsistent therewith. Duty and self-inter- 
est alike created a felt concern in behalf of the slaves' welfare, 
while this limited ownership was the surest protection of the 
negro, since the value of the anticipated services depended on 
the health and prolongation of life. Hence healthful and com- 
fortable conditions were specially looked after, and prompt and 
careful nursing affoi'ded in cases of sickness. Multiplied thou- 
sands of negro children were brought safely through the crit- 
ical periods of childhood and youth by the attentive carefulness 
and tender nursing of the mistress of the household. 

Much of the special work of the missionaries of our Church 
was in behalf of the slaves of the lai-ge plantations, the pastors 
of the regular work being used to subserve the purpose of look- 
ing after the religious welfare of the domestic portion remain- 
ing in their midst. But in this respect, as well-nigh all others. 



Traits of Christian Character. 347 

the civil war made an end of the old regime; and no thought- 
ful Southerner would, if in his power, restore the old order of 
things. That has passed awaj, and with trust and hopefulness 
we look forward to the new ; for the appearing of those better 
things to come, which in due time will be manifested under the 
guiding hand of Him who makes all things to work together 
for good to his trusting ones. Already the signs of the horizon 
point to the coming of a betterment that far surpasses anything 
that could have been imagined by the most fervent enthusiast. 
The good seed sown in the past, amid the most discouraging sur- 
roundings, will ultimately show their fruits. Sown in prayers 
and watered with tears, as they wei-e, such sowing cannot fail 
of its harvest, rich and sure. The old system of domestic slav- 
ery, so harshly criticized and so widely blamed by the outside 
world, has this one indisputable sequence, a fact evident to God, 
to man, and to angels — namely, that the slaves of the South, 
thus developed in our midst, are the best and most hopeful 
specimens of the African race which the world has ever beheld, 
and that Avhatever elevation the African world may ever attain 
unto will be brought about by the instrumentality of these same 
once enslaved but now enfranchised people, developed and still 
dwelling in our midst. The question naturally presents itself 
to every thoughtful mind: May not these Christianized freed- 
men of the South yet prove the indispensable factor in working 
out the redemption of the great continent whence sprang their 
forefathei-s ? " By their fruits ye shall know them," saith Jesus, 
and behold! here are the fruits. 

Rev. S. M. Cherry, of the Tennessee Confer- 
ence, contributes some interesting notes relating 
to the missionary labors of Elisha Carr, the ven- 
erable man whom the negroes were accustomed 
to say was " kin to God." 

"Sometimes Brother Carr catechized a whole 
congregation of negroes," says Mr. Cherry. " On 
one of these occasions, after preaching, he pro- 
pounded this question : ' What was the name of 
the first bird that Noah sent out of the ark?' 
23 



34^ The Gospel among the Slaves. 

"A gawky boy on the front bench answered: 
' I b'lieves hit war a jay bird, sir.' 

" 'Wrong,' said Brother Carr; ' again.' 

" ' I thinks hit mout er bin a blue heron,' ven- 
tured another. 

" ' I see,' said Brother Carr, frowning his dis- 
approbation, ' that you are guessing. Now I want 
some one to answer who knows what he is talking 
about.' 

" Just at this point an old negro in the back of 
the church whispered to his neighbor : ' I thinks I 
knows.' 

"Brother Carr, overhearing him, demanded 
an answer; whereupon the old darky, straight- 
ening himself with a great deal of consequence, 
boldly asserted: ' Dat bird war a turkey buz- 
zard, sir.' 

"This so disgusted Brother Carr that he brought 
the examination to a close at once." 

Dr. T. L. Boswell, a man of commanding in- 
fluence in the Memphis Conference, furnishes a 
sl^etch from which we select two paragraphs, re- 
gretting that the limits assigned to this work will 
not allow a publication in full. 

" I have witnessed many affecting scenes," says 
Dr. Boswell, " between Christian masters and 
their slaves in the old slavery times in the South. 
One case that I specially recall was that of Ned 
Davis and his body servant, Dennis. Dennis was 
a ti*ue Christian, pious and faithful. He had been 
the close attendant of his master in the latter' s 



Traits of Christian Character. 349 

wild days in North Carolina and other places, and 
had had to follow him into many places where a 
Christian man would not voluntarily go. But 
Dennis was a bondman and must obey, though he 
maintained his Christian integrity at all times. 
When I knew master and servant together at La 
Grange, Tenn., in 1840, Ned had become reli- 
gious, and I often saw the two happy together, 
shaking hands and rejoicing on their way to the 
better land. Ned often spoke of the sinful ways 
into which he had compelled his servant to go, 
while tears of regret filled his eyes. It was indeed 
a goodly sight to see them together praising God. 

"The good done among the slaves b}'- the gos- 
pel was manifest in many ways and on many oc- 
casions, but in none more conspicuously and ben- 
eficially than during the war. Here the old men, 
women, and children were left without any human 
protection in their midst and at their mercy. And 
in this exposed and helpless condition I do not re- 
member a single instance in all this country where- 
in they laid hands on them to hurt them. And 
when the Yankee armies came, carrying away 
many of the less civilly disposed of the blacks 
with them, the better class remained to work for 
the support and protection of old master and mis- 
tress and the children till freedom came." 

Rev. T. J. B. Neely relates the following affect- 
ing incident: 

Gambro was an old slave owned bj my father. He was one 
of the noblest of his race. In his hands v»'ere placed great re- 



A 



350 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

sponsibilities, and in no case was he ever unfaithful. Re- 
ligion was his theme, the enthusing current of his life. At 
night he sung and prayed in his cabin, and exhorted his fellow- 
servants to righteousness. All knew Uncle Gambro, and all, 
wherever he went, honored and respected him. As mj father 
stood beside his dying bed old Gambro said to him: "Master, 
jou have been merciful and good to me and Nancy, and I want 
to thank you for it before I go. You've preached to us a long 
time, sir, and we've seen some mighty good times together, but 
now they say I must die. I feel that I shall soon be gone. I've 
been talkin' to the Lord a long time about this matter. I have 
now come right up to the river and the next step — O, my Lord, 
-where shall I land.? On the other bank.'' on the glorious hank? 
Yes, thank the Lord! As you prayed last night, sir, he -will 
raise me up at the last day, and I will be satisfied when I wake 
up in his likeness." 

The next morning he lay stretched upon the plank cold and 
stiff in death. The neighbors came in, both white and black, to 
pay the last tribute to the grand old man they had truly hon- 
ored. He had fought a good fight; he had kept the faith. My 
father gave him a Chi'istian burial, and with loving hands we 
covered him in the clods of the valley. Dear Uncle Gambro! 
peace to thy ashes, and a blissful immortality when we shall all 
be raised up at the last day! 

Rev. W. A. Parks furnishes the following pleas- 
ing account of the religious influence exercised by 
the white pastors over their colored charges. Mr. 
Parks was stationed in Athens, Ga., in 1857, 
serving a large and flourishing "colored charge." 

"During the first revival in the Athens Mission," 
says Mr. Parks, "about one hundred were con- 
verted and joined the Church. Among the num- 
ber was a sprightly lad some twelve years of age, 
the slave of Prof. Johnson, of Franklin University. 
Lucius Holsey — for such was the lad's name — was 
house servant, waiter in the dining room, and er- 



Traits of Christian Character. 35 1 

rand boy. He was of a bright color, rather small 
for his age, quick of movement, and with a clear, 
penetrating eye. 

" Thirty years had come and gone since the 
conversion of that boy when the North Georgia 
Conference was in session in Augusta. I was ap- 
pointed to preach on Sunday at 11 o'clock in 
Trinity Colored Methodist Church. I was greeted 
by a large audience of the most intelligent of the 
colored population. Seated in the pulpit was Hol- 
sey, then bishop of the C. M. E. Church. He 
gave me a cordial welcome to the pulpit, for he 
had been pastor of that church. He was to me a 
stranger; but I was not a stranger to him, and he 
greeted me as though he had been a lifelong 
friend. He closed the services for me. After 
the prayer he arose and addressed the congrega- 
tion in about these words: 

" ' I must be pardoned for detaining you, but 
I must relate to you a bit of my experience. I 
was converted at Athens when a boy about twelve 
years old. There was a great revival in the 
Church, and many were converted. The gentle- 
man who has just preached to you was the pastor. 
He preached a sermon on Sunday morning that 
sent conviction to my heart, and brought me to see 
that I was a sinner and lost without salvation. I 
went away from the church with a heart burdened 
with sin. I found no comfort in the company of 
my former associates. I could do nothing but 
pray. I prayed as I waited in the dining room; I 



352 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

prayed as I went to and from the post office; I 
prayed all the week, and thought of little else but 
my sins, with a yearning for deliverance I cannot 
express. 

" ' On the next Sunday morning my duties were 
such I could not go to church, but I went at night. 
I answered the first call to the altar, and there I 
wrestled with God in prayer. I had gone to the 
altar to find salvation, and I was not willing to 
leave it till the burden was rolled from my heart. 
Finally all others had left the altar, the congrega- 
tion had been dismissed, and I alone remained, 
crouched down in front of the altar in an agony 
too great to describe. All but a few had left the 
church. Mr. Parks said: ' Brethren, I think this 
boy will be converted to-night. Let us get around 
him and pray for him.' They knelt around me, 
the pastor and my colored friends. Mr. Parks 
led the prayer, and while he was pleading with 
God for my salvation the Lord rolled the burden 
of sin from my heart and heaven's light came shin- 
ing in. O what a happy boy I was! I have had 
many ups and downs since then, but in all my sor- 
rows and toils in the ministry the Lord has been 
with me. I still have that same light and joy that 
came into my heart as I knelt at the altar of the 
Athens church.' 

" Then turning to me, his forefinger pointing to 
heaven, the tears coursing down his cheeks, he 
said to me: 'Brother, when you get to heaven, 
and the blessed Lord places a crown on your head, 



Traits of Christian Character. 353 

I will be one star in that crown ! ' Then with a 
heart too full for utterance, and in a tremulous 
voice, he dismissed an audience nearly all of whom 
were suffused in tears." 

The Rev. Leonard Rush, of the Georgia Confer- 
ence, relates an incident that illustrates the liberal- 
ity and fraternal feeling of these sons of Africa : 

" One of the plantations I served on the Chat- 
tahoochee Mission belonged to ex-Governor 
Hamilton, of South Carolina. When I took 
charge of this place, I found two leaders, a Meth- 
odist and a Baptist. The Methodist leader was a 
low man in stature and the Baptist a tall one. 
The name of each was Billy. They called one 
' Short Billy' and the other 'Long Billy.' There 
were four hundred slaves on this plantation. Long 
Billy and his flock held a certificate of member- 
ship from the Baptist Church in Savannah. When 
I had been preaching at this place two years, 
' Long Billy ' came to see me one day and said : 
' Master Rush, I have heard you preach two years, 
and you preach just what I believe, and I and all 
my members will join your Church, provided you 
will immerse us when we wish to be baptized.' I 
promised to do so, and he and all his charge — I 
think about thirty in all — became members of our 
Church. 

" They had some customs on this plantation that 
I very much admired. When a child was born, 
as soon as the mother was able to carry the child 
to the place of worship, they had a day of thanks- 



354 1^^^^ Gospel amo7ig the Slaves. 

giving to God for the preservation of the mother, 
and that another human being had been brought 
into existence. They then presented the child 
before the congregation and offered it to God with 
many prayers for its safe passage through the 
world, and for its eternal welfare in the world to 
come. When any one became a seeker of salva- 
tion, if it was a woman, they committed her to the 
care of two or three of their most pious women, 
who advised her, prayed for her, and led her on 
until she came through the Spirit. By coming 
through the Spirit they meant what we call con- 
version. If the seeker was a man, two or three 
of the brethren took charge of him in the like 
manner. 

"About the close of my fourth year on this 
mission we had a wonderful work of revival, and 
between, forty and fifty came through the Spirit. 
I examined each of them carefully, and I believe 
they were truly born of the Spirit. The day I 
appointed to baptize them turned out to be one 
of the coldest I had ever known. We had to 
march a mile to the Chattahoochee, where the 
ordinance was to be administered. On leaving 
their cabins they formed a procession two deep, 
the leaders in front, next some of the principal 
members, then the candidates for baptism. Be- 
hind them came the other Church members, with 
the worldings in the rear. As they started they 
raised a song, and how they did sing ! They sung 
all the way to the river. 



Traits of Christian Character. 355 

"The day was beautiful, the sky was clear, and 
the water as clear as the sky. The sun shone 
with noonday splendor. When we entered the 
bed of the river, we had to pass over a bed of clean 
white sand before we got to the edge of the water. 
Here Short Billy presented his candidates for bap- 
tism, and then Long Billy presented his. The 
latter said: 'Master Rush, here are seventeen 
that I wish you to immerse, but here are three 
sickly ones, and it would be unsafe for them to go 
into the water, so I only want you to sprinkle 
them.' I went through our baptismal formula, and 
then arranged all to be baptized by affusion in a 
line facing the water, leaving room for me to pass 
between them and the water. They then all knelt 
down, facing the water, and I dipped the water in 
my mission-horn and baptized them according to 
the rites of the Methodist Church. 

"Long Billy then waded out into the water to 
where it was of sufficient depth for immersion, 
and, standing with his face upstream, offered a 
very devout prayer. I then, with his assistance, 
immersed his subjects. When I entered the water, 
I felt like I was on fire until I lost all feeling. I 
then had to ride a mile before I could change my 
clothes. I very narrowly escaped an attack of 
pneumonia from that day's work." 

From the pen of Dr. H. S. Thrall, of Texas, 
we have these pen-portraits of remarkable negro 
Methodists in Texas. 

"In 1842," says Dr. Thrall, "Austin, Tex., 



35^ The Gospel among the Slaves. 

was depopulated by Indian raids. The govern- 
ment returned to the city in 1844, ^"^^ ^"^ ^^ ^"^ 
of that year the writer of this was sent there to 
reorganize the Methodist Church. 

" When I arrived in the city, one of the first 
acquaintances formed was that of Rowan Hardin, 
a lawyer, belonging to a celebrated Kentucky 
family of Methodists. Mr. Hardin informed me 
that the only religious services held in the city, of 
which he had heard, were those by a colored 
preacher named Nace Duval, a slave of the Duval 
family. 

" Nace was an excellent Christian, with consid- 
erable preaching ability. He had collected a large 
class of colored Methodists, and was active in 
visiting, exhorting, and holding meetings. I found 
him efficient help in my work among his race. He 
had considerable influence with the whites, and, 
with his assistance, we built a small house of wor- 
ship for the negroes. It was located on the hill 
where the colored congregation of the M. E. 
Church now worships in that city. 

"After freedom. Brother Nace removed to San 
Antonio, and organized a Church for the colored 
people in that city in connection with the African 
M. E. Church. That congregation now has a 
resident bishop. Their church is on the west side 
of the San Pedro Creek in that city. Their patri- 
arch, Nace, died in the faith at a good old age, 
universally loved and respected. 

" In 1848 the writer traveled what was then 



Traits of Christian Character. 357 

kn6wn as the Washington Circuit. At Independ- 
ence he found one of the most able and influential 
preachers he has ever met. He was universally 
known as ' Uncle Mark.' The planters paid his 
master for his time, and he traveled extensively, 
preaching, organizing churches, and doing an 
excellent work for his people. About that time 
the owner of Uncle Mark removed to the West, 
and the planters, unwilling to lose his labors and 
influence among their slaves, raised the money 
among themselves, and purchased him ; but as 
our laws did not allow of emancipation, he was 
deeded to three Methodist preachers in trust for 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 

" In 1853 the Texas Conference elected Uncle 
Mark to deacon's orders as a local preacher, and 
Bishop Paine ordained him at the Conference at 
Bastrop. After the war he united with the A. M. 
E. Church, and lived to a good old age, loved and 
respected by white and black. 

" I once heard Uncle Mark illustrate the con- 
duct of unstable Christians. ' You,' said he, ' are 
in and out, joining the Church and backsliding. 
Bless your souls, the Lord don't count you in the 
crop! You belong to the " Drop Shot Gang !" ' (a 
gang composed of feeble women and children, not 
counted as hands in the crop). 

" On another occasion he was preaching against 
pride. He said: ' You think a poor negro has 
nothing to be proud of; but on Sunday afternoon 
give one of these boys a red bandanna handker- 



358 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

chief and white cotton gloves, and he's as proud 
as Lucifer.' 

'* There was a singular depth and pathos in the 
good man's voice, and he had a wonderful facility 
in illustrations. At that early period there was less 
prejudice against colored preachers than now 
appears in some places. Uncle Mark often attend- 
ed our camp meetings, and certain hours at the 
preaching-stand were given to the negroes. When 
he arose in the pulpit to address his fellow-slaves, 
numbers of the whites would gather near and 
listen with profound attention to the old man's 
eloquent appeals. 

"In 1850 and 185 1 I was stationed at Galveston. 
We then had but one church building, and on 
Sunday afternoon Ryland Chapel, as our church 
was named, was occupied by the colored people, 
the pastor conducting the services, which usually 
consisted of preaching, catechising, etc. I found 
here an excellent colored society, among them 
some truly gifted speakers. Their names have 
escaped me, but the record is on high. One of 
them was a barber who hired his own time and 
who kept one of the most fashionable shops in the 
city. He managed to have a good deal of leisure, 
and was a great help in doing pastoral work among 
the negroes. 

" We soon found it necessary to have a separate 
place of worship, and with the help of the white 
congregation, and such assistance as the negroes 
could give, we secured a Lot on Broadway and 



Traits of Christian Character. 359 

built a small church. Some of the happiest meet- 
ings I had during my Galveston pastorate was 
with the colored brethren in the Broadway Church. 
After the war that congregation and property went 
into the possession of the African M. E. Church. 
There is now a commodious building on that 
Broadway lot, belonging to the A. M. E. Church." 

From the pen of Rev. Whiteford Smith, D.D., 
of the South Carolina Conference, we have the 
following account of a famous character among 
the colored people in South Carolina: 

" I first knew Sancho Cooper while I was in 
college at Columbia, S. C. — 1826 to 1830. He 
was then the trusted servant of Dr. Thomas Cooper, 
the noted skeptic. President of the college. 

"As our first recitation in the morning was held 
at sunrise, the students were in the habit of em- 
ploying some of the servants who resided in the 
campus, or its immediate vicinity, to bring them 
water and make fires at or about daylight. Sancho 
Cooper was one of these, as it did not interfere 
with his duties at home. Of his early life the 
tradition, as I have heard it, was that his former 
owner had had no objection to him except on the 
score of his religion. He was bitterly opposed to 
his holding meetings and praying with the negroes 
on the plantation ; and inasrnuch as Sancho could 
not be persuaded to give up his conscientious con- 
victions of duty in this respect, he was threatened 
and afterward cruelly punished to make him stop 
praying, and finally sold for no other fault but this. 



360 The Gosfel among the Slaves. 

" I have heard that when Dr. Cooper purchased 
Sancho he told him he had no objection to his 
praying, so that he faithfully discharged his duties 
to him. I have heard Dr. Cooper speak in terms 
of warm approval of Sancho's character, and 
express a wish that all the negroes were like him. 
As far as I ever heard, he had the confidence and 
respect of the Doctor's family and the community 
at large. It is related that on one occasion an aged 
negro woman lay dying in the kitchen. The fam- 
ily was greatly attached to her and had gathered 
about her bed, smitten with deep emotion. While 
Sancho was praying with and for her she became 
very happy, shouting the praises of God, where- 
upon Sancho, turning to them, called upon them 
to witness how happy were the effects of religion 
on an old negro. 

" Sancho was class leader among the colored 
members of our Church in Columbia for many 
years, and held in high respect by his pastors and 
by the white membership of the Church generally. 
His honesty and truthfulness I never heard ques- 
tioned. At one time he was at the head of a 
society, composed of the colored members of the 
Church, who had banded together for the purpose 
of mutual improvement, and also for charitable 
purposes. They met once a week and regularly 
contributed to a fund called " the poor fund," the 
surplus of which went to the sick and aged. 

" In 1832 I entered upon the work of the min- 
istry. In 1841-42 I was stationed in Columbia. 



Traits of Christimt Character. 361 

Dr. Cooper was then dead. I found Sancho still 
one of the faithful leaders among the colored 
people. Gaining his confidence, he spoke to me 
freely of his master's death. One day during the 
Doctor's last illness he called Sancho into his 
room and directed him to shut and lock the door. 
He then pointed to a large quarto Bible upon a 
shelf and bade him take it down. Sancho did so, 
when the Doctor told him to keep it for his sake. 
He then spoke to Sancho very feelingly of the 
religion that faithful old servant had so long pro- 
fessed — told him it was right and to hold on to it, 
that he had known what it was himself when he 
was young, but that the people in public life and 
high positions, with whom he had been called to 
associate, had been the means of leading him away 
from it. Sancho went on to say that Dr. Cooper 
had told him that he wished him to kneel down 
and pray for him. To this Sancho objected, on 
the ground of his unlettered ignorance and inca- 
pacity to pray for so learned a man, saying, ' I 
am not fit, master, to pray for so great a man as 
you,' and urged him to send for one of the min- 
isters then stationed in the city, who would be far 
more able to talk and pray with him. But the 
Doctor told him he was good enough to pray for 
him, and insisted on it until Sancho complied with 
his wishes to the best of his ability. Upon Sancho 
further urging him, he asked what minister would 
come to see him. Sancho told him that he knew 
Rev. William M. Kennedy would come. He said 



362 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

the Doctor finally consented, but objections were 
interposed, and thus Mr. Kennedy was never sent 
for. Thus we have evidence that the hard and un- 
believing heart of this noted skeptic was indeed 
melted at the last, and there is no doubt that the 
consistent life of this faithful old negro had much 
to do with it, else why did his master so cling to him 
when the dark waves of death's river were beating 
about his feet ? 

" Sancho brought the Bible his master had given 
him to the parsonage to show to me, and left it in 
my possession some days. He treasured it highly 
and had determined that at his death it should be 
given to the library of Wofford College. But in 
the destruction of Columbia during the late war it 
could never be found, and is supposed to have 
been consumed in the conflagration of that city. 
This Bible was said to have belonged to Dr. 
Cooper's father, who was a minister of the gospel 
and a great friend of John Wesley. I heard Dr. 
Cooper say that he had known Mr. Wesley very 
well and often been dandled on his knee when he 
stopped over at his father's house on his travels. 

"As an instance of Dr. Cooper's kind consid- 
eration of Sancho' s religious feelings and devotion 
to duty, I have heard it said that on one occasion, 
when the Doctor had company on the evening of 
Sancho's class meeting, finding that Sancho re- 
mained to attend on the house, he reminded him 
that this was the evening for his meeting, when 
Sancho replied that the Doctor had company. 



Traits of Christian Character. 363 

The Doctor answered him, * No, no !' and insisted 
on his not allowing that to detain him from his 
meeting, and bade him go. 

*' Sancho lived to a ripe old age, well provided 
for by his master, who had left him an annuity in 
his will." 
24 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Memorials of Faithful Slaves. 

MRS. SUSAN S. McPHERSON, of Fayette- 
ville, Ala., records some reminiscences of a 
Southern plantation. 

" I used regularly to read the Bible," sa3^s Mrs. 
McPherson, " to all such as came to hear. I had 
stated seasons set apart for this. After reading 
the texts I would explain them as well as I could, 
and then give a little talk touching religion carried 
into the daily life. Three of our men became 
preachers, powers for untold good among their 
people. All three of these men could read. They 
had been taught on the plantation. One could 
consult Dr. Clarke's ' Commentary ' on any subject 
he desired. He could write also. When set free, 
he supported himself by teaching school. I also 
encouraged my children to teach the young ne- 
groes how to spell and read. Sometimes we had 
regular schools on the place, at which the young 
instructors did something else besides merely play 
at teaching. 

"We had man}' trusted family servants, who 
were treated like anything else but servants, and 
who, in turn, were devoted to us. I must tell of 
one of these. Her name was Amanda. She had 
been born in our home and raised up there. We 
(364) 



Memorials of Faithful Slaves. 365 

never thought of Amanda as a servant, much less as 
a slave. Hers was one of the most beautiful char- 
acters I have ever known, black or white. If 
ever she exhibited even the least inclination to 
bad temper, I never knew it. In her disposition 
she was most gentle and docile, with plenty of 
spirit, yet yielding obedience with a sweet and 
hearty readiness that was sure to win all who saw 
her. Amanda came as near being a perfect hu- 
man being as I have ever known. She was posi- 
tively without fault, save a little shortcoming here 
and there that could not be said to amount to a 
fault. She was coal black, not a particle of mixed 
blood in her, a truly noble specimen of her race. 
She is still living, a courteous, gentle old woman 
that it is a real pleasure to know. Around her 
has grown up a family of children whose polite 
manners and good behavior is the remark of all. 
Such negroes as these are a blessing to any com- 
munity. 

"Among my husband's slaves was one that had 
been brought direct from Africa. He had been 
taken from there when fifteen years of age. It 
took him a long while to learn to talk so that we 
could understand him. When he heard of the 
good world where he might meet his friends, old 
Jack was one of the happiest negroes on the earth. 
After he was converted his cup of joy seemed run- 
ning over. His religion shone in his face, and 
spoke in every tone of his voice. Daily he praised 
God for having sent him to America, where he 



366 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

had learned of things so precious to him. When 
old Jack got happy, he would hug his master and 
bless God for having placed them together. Jack 
had unusual intelligence, was quick to understand, 
and as quick at retort. Once, just after he had 
been publicly shouting and proclaiming how pre- 
cious he had found Jesus to his soul, a young 
man looking on said to him: 'Jack, don't be so 
certain about having Jesus with you. You only 
hope you have him, I guess.' 

" ' Mr. Thomson, you hopes you have your hat 
on your head? ' 

" ' Hope, Jack? why I know I have it on.' 

" ' But you can't see it: it's on the back of your 
head.' 

" ' But I can feel it,' returned Mr. Thomson, a 
little out of patience with Jack's questioning. 

" ' Yes, that's jus' so. Yo\x feels it. Well, Mr. 
Thomson, that's jus' de way wid Jack. I knows 
I's got my Jesus in my heart. I can't see him, 
but 1 feels him. O how I feels him! Bress de 
Lord ! bress de Lord ! ' And Jack went to shout- 
ing again. 

"In 1850 Jack expressed a desire to go to Af- 
rica and preach to his people there. That he 
might have the wish of his heart, my husband set 
him free. He also began the preparations to send 
him over; but when the time came, Jack's heart 
failed him. He couldn't leave his family. Of 
course we could not think of sending his family 
with him, for Jack was quite a patriarch, having a 



Memorials of Faithfzd Slaves. 367 

wife and twenty children. All his children who 
grew up made good and useful men and women. 
Several of them are living now in this place. They 
stand well in the community. His grandchildren 
and great-grandchildren still serve my family. 
They do all my house work and attend to other 
calls. The tie that exists between us is strong. 
Only death can sever it. 

"As to Jack, he died in great peace, still shout- 
ing forth the praises of his Jesus. His master had 
him buried in the family burial ground. There 
he sleeps beside the generations of those he loved 
and served so well. The attachment of these old 
family servants to the old plantation home was 
touching. It was always hard for them to leave 
it; and when fortune or chance drifted them back 
again, they were the most overjoyed of creatures. 

" Some time after freedom one of our old serv- 
unts who was at a distance was attacked with a 
lingering sickness. She constantly begged to be 
carried back to the old home, pathetically protest- 
ing that she could not die away from it. At 
length her desire was granted. Her happiness 
was touching to see. The last words on her lips 
were: * I have a home in glory.' " 

We could fill many pages with the records of 
faithful servants who preserved after their emanci- 
pation their affection for their former masters and 
mistresses, proving the reality of their attachment 
by testimony that cannot be doubted. Within the 
knowledge of the editor of this volume there are 



368 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

more than a score of instances in which emanci- 
pated slaves, or " freedm.en " and " freedwomen," 
as they are called, have labored for years as hired 
servants, taking their monthly wages to eke out 
the small income of their former owners. Deny- 
ing themselves of all the luxuries and many of the 
conveniences of life, these faithful negroes have 
ministered to those who were in other days their 
masters and mistresses, recognizing the debt of 
gratitude that was due to those who were, under 
Providence, their benefactors in the days of slav- 
ery. 

Many instances similar to the one recorded by 
Col. J. J. Stockwell, of California, might be in- 
serted. This one is of a peculiar character, and 
we give it in full: 

In the year 1873, owing to the prevalence of yellow fever, 
we fled from Shreveport, La. Every one had lost his head on 
account of the dire scourge. Friends were deserting friends, 
and even among the members of the same family cases of cold- 
hearted desertion were known to have occurred. Against so 
unprepossessing a background the example of faithfulness I 
am about to relate stands forth the more luminous. 

In our flight we came near to the house of a former slave of 
my father, Mary Ann by name, who was then, with other hired 
hands, working on a farm in the vicinity. She had lived with 
us on the old home plantation; had been kindly treated and 
brought up in the light and knowledge of the gospel. In return 
her heart was filled with gratitude and affection. Few white 
people would have proven it with the heroism she did. 

It soon became known all through the neighborhood that we 
had been exposed to the fever. In consequence we were 
shunned as though the dread plague had broken out among us. 
No white person would come near us, not within a hundred 
yards of our dwelling place. But this faithful old woman, this 



Memorials of Faithfid Slaves. 369 

former servant, came regularly to administer to our wants, and 
this, too, in the face of the strongest opposition. She came 
daily to bring us milk, vegetables, and other necessities. But 
for her and the supplies with which she furnished us, we must 
have suffered sorely. 

When the man for whom she was working heard of her 
coming to us, he harshly forbade her to do so again, threatening 
to discharge her if she persisted. But Mary Ann's faithfulness 
was far above any worldly consideration. She continued her 
visits to us, but now chiefly at night, biinging her small tokens 
of care and affection. 

But this was not the only instance of Mary Ann's faithful- 
ness. Several years before this, during my father's illness, she 
left her home and came to nurse him, remaining with him to 
his death. I have known Mary Ann on several occasions to 
walk twenty miles to visit us, and to bring us such little pres- 
ents as she could afford. Through the varying changes of life 
her heart still clung faithfully about those who had been con- 
nected with her and who had been good to her in the old plan- 
tation home. 

The following article, from the pen of Mrs. 
Mary Winans Wall, of Louisiana, makes worthy 
mention of a nobleman of nature, whose name will 
be perpetuated as long as goodness and generosity 
are esteemed among men. As this record embod- 
ies the subject of this chapter as well as the pur- 
pose of this book, we give it in full: 

I speak from experience when I say that Southerners — many 
of them — were warmly zealous in their endeavors to promote 
religious instruction among their slaves. 

It was always a matter that lay near the hearts of Methodist 
preachers. Being a preacher's daughter, and wife, I can speak 
from knowledge. In my childhood days negro servants were 
considered as part of the family, and treated very much as the 
children were, being cared for and directed in their duties. In 
families where I was intimate the servants were regularly 
called in to prayers. In my own family, during the absence of 



370 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

my father, my mothei- would read a chapter, we would all sing 
a hymn, and ihen often she would ask " Uncle Winter" to lead 
us in prayer. 

Judge McGhee, who owned hundreds of slaves, was very 
careful to have them regularly preached to. His son's (Capt. 
George McGhee's) earliest recollecaon is of sitting in his 
nurse's lap and hearing preaching to the slaves in a large room 
on his father's plantation. I will not be positive, but I think 
that it was a bishop who preached to them that night. I was 
visiting at the house, and I remember that Conference was sit- 
ting at Woodville. 

In the Mississippi Conference there were always missionaries 
appointed to preach to the blacks. As a general thing they 
were favorably received and encouraged in their labors. Some 
of the planters, however, did not want their negroes preached 
to, fearing abolition teaching. 

At old Midway Church, in Wilkinson County, Miss., there 
was a part of the building that was especially set apart for the 
negroes, and they often outnumbered the whites. They heard 
just the same gospel, and had the same sacraments that the 
whites had. This was from 1818 to 1840. Slowly things 
changed. The abolition excitement, then at white heat, com- 
bined with other things, began to tell, and the patriarchal sys- 
tem of domestic slavery reached its decline. Yet the mission- 
aries, despite the cold shoulder often turned upon them, went 
from plantation to plantation preaching and teaching. Nobler 
and grander soldiers of the cross were never found. They 
counted no sacrifice too great in their Godlike efforts to advance 
this lowly work. Let the Church honor their memory, and 
keep it green forever. 

A gentleman in West Feliciana, La., who was not a Chris- 
tian, asked for a preacher for his slaves. He said: " I do not 
wish to see my negroes die without religious training." He 
voiced the sentiment of many who were nonreligious them- 
selves. 

At Clinton, La., where I moved after marriage, there was a 
large congregation and membership of colored people. They 
were regularly preached to on Sunday afternoon. They met 
at 2:30 o'clock, and were a neatly dressed, good-looking, and 
contented people. Sometimes a white minister preached to 



Memorials of Faithful Slaves. 371 

them, and again one of their own color. The law was then 
that a white person must be present during the services I 
have often sat and listened to their exercises, when mj husband 
was aAvaj. 

I always tried to teach the colored children, as my mother 
had done before me. After I came to Clinton I established a 
Sunday school for them that was always well attended. It was 
at that time not a very popular thing to do, but I persevered. 
I could afford to do so, as I had influential friends to defend my 
course. I had one lady to saj' to me, " I can't help believing ' 
you are an abolitionist," and all because I was simply making 
an effort for the souls of these black creatures. Even my own 
sons were against me, or that is against the work. One of them 
used to say, nearly every Sunday: " Mother, let those negroes 
alone." But I kept resolutely on my way, despite all dissuasion 
or opposition. I had blessed help in the work. Sometimes 
Mi-s. Judge McVea and Mrs. Lucy Barton helped me. One 
sweet young girl helped me for awhile, but her uncle made 
her quit it. 

There are two colored ministers who claim me as their theo- 
logical instructress. As they are exceptionally intelligent and 
pious, it is no small credit that they reflect. One of these is 
Blind William Nailor. He learned every word of Capers's 
" Smaller Catechism " from me and nearly all the larger one, 
together with the Creed, many hymns, and a great deal of the 
Bible. He is now a minister in the A. M. E. Church. He 
comes to see me at intervals, and gratefully thanks me for the 
care I bestowed upon him. Often when traveling about the 
parish I come upon those, now grown men and women, who 
joyfully recognize me, and speak to me as their former Sunday 
school teacher. It warms my heart to think that many of these 
have gone right. But there are some who have not. That 
worries me, but then I remember that it is the way of the world 
ever: all who are taught, never mind how conscientiously or 
well, do not do right. 

I have seen consistent lives among some colored people who 
did not join the Church. One of the most faithful people I 
ever knew was " Uncle Toney." He could not be induced to 
join the Church, and yet he was in every way to be trusted. / 
His father was an African, surrounded by all the dark super- 



372 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

stitions of his race, and I have often Avondered if he were not 
the cause of his son's refusal to come into the Church. But I 
think Tonej tisied to live right. When dying he made this 
answer to those who were endeavoring to get him to acknowl- 
edge himself a follower of Christ: " I've always tried to keep vxp 
my plantation." Rev. J. C. Burruss, to whom it was repeated, 
said that was as good a confession of faith as we need wish — 
for Toney. 

Some of these old time slaves were a pleasure to all and a 
blessing to their owners. Judge McGhee owned a man named 
Charles. He had manners as courtly as Henry Clay — my model 
of manners. He had a nice white frame cottage, rode a horse, 
and enjoyed the confidence and favor of the white people, yet 
he was just as deferential as the humblest field hand. He was 
woi-thy both of love and esteem. Always on his return from 
New Orleans or the North, Judge McGhee brought a quantity 
of supplies not only for his family, but for his servants. Once, 
as they were spread out before him, he said to Charles : " Charles, 
what do you want of those things.?" "Well, master," returned 
Charles, " I would like some of that furniture checks." I have 
forgotten whether he said he wanted the checks for a spread, 
or some bed curtains, but think it was for cui'tains. If Charles 
had said, " Master, I would love to have a silver mug, or a 
carpet," I do not doubt that Charles's wish would have been 
gratified, so highly did his master esteem him. But Charles 
was the humblest of creatures; he never once thought of such 
things as being suitable to him. He was, too, one of the most 
faithful. No one ever seemed to him to equal his own folks. 

When Gen. Taylor, after the Mexican war, had a reception 
in Woodville, Charles was in attendance on his white people. 
Next day some one said: "Charles, what do you think of the 
General.'"' Well," returned Charles, "he was well enough, but 
I did not see any gentleman who came up to the Judged 

I kept faithfully to my class in the Sunday school till freedom 
came. Twenty years in all had I faithfully devoted to them, 
and it pained me to see the readiness with which they left me, 
until only seven were left. William Nailor stood steadfastly 
by the Church into which I had brought him, until that Church 
made separate provision for its colored membei'S, when he 
entered the A. M. E. Church. 



Memorials of Faithfid Slaves. 373 

Not unfrequently the missionary to the slaves 
was called upon to follow the example of St. Paul 
in returning a runaway slave to his master. One 
instance of this kind Mrs. Lizzie T. Gulick, of 
Texas, relates. She was the daughter of Rev. 
John W. Talley, of the Georgia Conference, who 
was for many years distinguished for his labors 
among the negroes. 

"One morning," says Mrs. Gulick, " our old 
nurse came in and told brother and me that there 
was a runaway negro in the kitchen. With fear 
and trembling we went out to see him. His clothes 
were in rags and his head and feet were bare. He 
sent a message by us to father. He was engaged, 
but returned a message to the negro that he would 
see him after awhile. In the meantime, he told 
us to see that the cook gave the poor fellow some 
hot coffee and a good breakfast. 

" I saw tears on the negro's black face, but his 
eyes brightened as soon as my father appeared. 
He had heard my father preach, and many times 
he had been kindly talked to and encouraged to 
make a brave and faithful man of himself. His 
story was soon told. When angry with another 
negro, he had been insolent to his master, and in 
his passion and fright had fled from the field to 
the woods, where he had remained hidden ever 
since, living as best he could. Now he wanted to 
go home to his master, but he was afraid to go 
alone. In his loneliness his heart turned to the 
good, kind preacher. He had no other friend who 



374 '^^^^ Gospel among the Slaves. 

could go with him to his master, and help in the 
task of telling how sorry he was for the wrong 
he had done. 

" My father's heart was touched. Soon all was 
arranged, and in a little while he, with the ragged 
runaway negro in the buggy with him, was on 
his way to the master. With a little intercession, 
the master was soon ready to forgive and forget. 
The old negro loved my father to the end of his 
life with a deep and idolatrous affection." 

Rev. A. D. Betts, of the North Carohna Confer- 
ence, furnishes the following: 

In the later days of slavery the laws of North Carolina did 
not allow negroes to hold religious meetings without the pres- 
ence of some white person, so the pastor appointed a white 
class leader for the negroes in each church. 

At Zion Church, in Brunswick County, we had a large num- 
ber of negro members. They requested me to appoint Brother 
W. H. Walker their class leader. At that time he owned a 
small farm, had a nice family of children, and owned a few 
slaves. Some years before he had been overseer on the largest 
plantation in the neighborhood. What a tribute was this! these 
slaves choosing for their spiritual guide the man who had for 
years governed them on the farm ! 

About the middle of the year I preached on Missions at ii 
A.M. and took vip a collection. It was a fine one. Among 
other contributions, four persons paid twenty dollars to have 
their pastor made a life member. There was the usual number 
of negroes present, and I noticed them paying very close at- 
tention. 

That afternoon, as was my custom, I preached specially to 
the negroes at 3 o'clock. At its close 1 took up a collection for 
Missions. I was taken greatly by surprise when the negroes 
began at once, and in fine spirit, to raise twenty dollars to make 
their class leader a life member of the society. In a few min- 
utes it was done. Brother Walker was deeply moved, as he 



Memo7-ials of Faithful Slaves. 375 

had need to be. Never have I known a heartier or a more 
honest compliment paid. 

Afterward we rode to Wilmington and had our certificates 
framed. I do not know which was the prouder, he or I. His 
hung in an honored place on his parlor wall through life. The 
incident related needs no further comment. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Testimony of Prominent Freedmen. 

THAT the missions to the slaves on the large 
plantations involved greater risks, than other 
stations of itinerant ministers will be conceded by 
all persons acquainted with the facts. The rice 
plantations especially were centers of malarial in- 
fluence. Large bodies of water kept stagnant 
upon the level rice fields, permeating the soil to a 
great depth, filling crevices and subterranean 
lakelets, just deep enough to be within reach of 
atmospheric changes, and the recession of the 
pent-up mass of water leaving these pools and 
lakelets to welter and boil in the summer sun with 
myriads of decaying vegetable germs of disease- 
producing quality — these were the conditions out 
of which periodical attacks of fever could not fail 
to come. The blacks, accustomed for genera- 
tions and for ages to similar conditions in the 
tropics and on the seacoast of Africa, were hard- 
ened against these fevers, but the whites were al- 
most universally attacked whenever they came 
within range of the deadly miasma. How many 
soldiers of the cross died as martyrs to these fe- 
vers we will never know. The yellow fever has 
its times of visitation, and thousands fall while the 
world looks on, pities, sympathizes, or mourns the 
(376) 



Testimony of Prominent Freedmen. 377 

destruction of human life. Heroes on these occa- 
sions a-re immortalized. They die in the glare of 
newspapers and telegraphs, throwing a halo of 
glory upon such deathbeds. But from year to 
year, one by one, the patient itinerant died by the 
wayside, and the people of his own state scarcely 
heard of it. He alone knew the risks in venturing 
upon the work, and he alone knew the reward of 
the faithful messenger who died in carrying the 
Lord's message. 

An illustration, which is one of more than a 
score that might be given, will be found in the 
following paper from the pen of Rev. John W. 
Talley, of the Georgia Conference : 

In 1836 I was made presiding elder of the Savannah District, 
and for four years combined the duties of this position with 
that of superintendent of the slave missions on the §avannah 
River: Skidaway, Whitemarsh, Burnside, Islands below Savan- 
nah, Back River, S. C, Ogeechee, etc. This work was re- 
garded by some as the forlorn hope, by others the field of 
honor, and the best men of the Conference were willing to be 
sent there. I knew and loved two promising young men who 
were appointed to this dangerous work, and there died in young 
manhood. One, Alfred Beatty, of handsome form and face, of 
fine intellect, educated at West Point, gave himself vip for this 
work. The first year in it he fell by the country fever and left 
his widowed mother and a devoted wife. The other was a 
young brother by the name of Rawls. He was a remarkably 
saintly youth, and devoted to the work of the Master. The 
day before his attack he. Rev. James E. Godfrey, and myself 
went from the wharf at Savannah in a boat to the plantation on 
Back River and north end of Hutchison Island. On many rice 
fields the flood gates had been opened to the putrid water that 
had stagnated under a burning sun. I, Brothers Rawls and 
Godfrey, in a four-oared boat, rowed, that Sunday morning, 



37^ The Gospel among the Slaves. 

over the putrid water from the rice fields to Mr. Smith's plan- 
tation, and returned to Savannah Sunday night. That young 
missionary's work was accomplished; the Master said it was 
enough. He had nothing more to do but to lay himself down 
and die. Monday morning revealed the fearful truth. The 
physician kept his own counsel, and the young, saintly Rawls 
suffered. All day and all night Brother Godfrey and I, as- 
sisted by our good wives, sat by his bed and soothed and min- 
istered to him as best we could. One shoi-t week he suffei-ed ; 
black vomit ensued and his death was imminent. We never 
left him. Young, promising, talented, devotedly pious, an- 
other martyr had fallen in his zeal to rescue the negro's soul 
from the thraldom of sin. 

Who will wi-ite of the dangers and sufferings and death 
Southern Methodist preachers endured in preaching the gospel 
of the Son of God to the negroes of the rice and cotton fields.? 

Brother Samuel J. Bryan was an angel of mercy to the ne- 
groes on many of these plantations. He traveled on the rice 
dams from plantation to plantation, and at all hours of the day 
and night to mitigate the sufferings of the negroes prostrated 
by the cholera. The owners were at a distance, in many in- 
stances the overseer dead, and agents and physicians too fright- 
ened to risk spending one night in the house occupied by the 
cholera patients. But Samuel Bryan, with his trust in God, 
knew no fear. He could be seen stooping over their prostrate 
forms, ministering to their wants, and helping to load the boats 
with the sick and frightened negroes whom their masters were 
sending to high pine lands, where they could be better nursed. 
Again he was seen disbursing the provisions the affrighted 
owners had ordered for the relief of their suffering slaves. 
The owners would not risk their own lives on the infected 
plantations, though the loss of slaves and property amounted 
to a loss of thousands. But Samuel Bryan and the other mis- 
sionaries for the love of God and the hope of saving souls were 
happy in their work of love to the poorest and most ignorant. 

Afterward Rev. Andrew Hammell was superintendent of 
this mission field, visiting it often in company with the regular 
missionai-ies : Brothers John Davis, Quillen, John W. Rems- 
hart, and others. 

Then Dr. Lovick Pierce, in his time, was visiting and cate- 



Testimony of Prominent Freedmen. 379 

chising, from plantation to plantation, and preaching at the va- 
rious places. Can the world or the Church produce such an 
array of men, heroes as well as servants? There are others, 
many others, I have not named, but their names are written in 
heaven. 

That the negroes of this generation should cher- 
ish the kindHest feelings toward the whites, and 
especially their old masters, is perfectly natural, and 
we should not be surprised to find utterance given 
to this sentiment. Bishop Henry M. Turner, prob- 
ably the foremost man in the African Methodist 
Episcopal Church, of which he is now a bishop, 
was born free; but his wife was a slave, and his 
first introduction to the people of Athens, Ga., 
was in 1858, when he was soliciting money to pur- 
chase his wife's freedom. Rev. W. A. Parks, of 
the North Georgia Conference, who gives us this 
information, could not state whether success at- 
tended the efforts of the preacher, but he testifies 
to the deep interest kindled among the white peo- 
ple by Turner's preaching. 

The Rev. Samuel Leard, one of the most use- 
ful missionaries in the South Carolina Conference, 
received a letter from Bishop Turner, of which the 
following is a copy: 

To Rev. Samuel Leard. 

Dear Father in God: Language is inadequate to express my 
pleasure at a reception of the letter from one to whom I owe so 
much; who when I was a wild, reckless boy, in 1851, at the 
camp meeting just beyond Abbeville Court House S. C, opened 
to me my sad condition, in one of your masterly sermons, and 
as a mighty instrument in God's hands led me to the feet of a 
pardoning Jesus. 

From 1851 up to this moment I have carried in my breast a 
25 



380 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

grateful heart that God ever gave jou to the ministry. I love 
you while living, will love you when dead, and will love you in 
heaven. 

A short sketch of my life would run as follows: 

I was bom near Newberry Court House in 1833-34, possibly 
1834; went to Abbeville with my parents when a boy, and was 
bound to Mr. Thomas Jackson (carriage maker) to learn the 
trade. I joined the Church under Rev. Mr. Crowell, on proba- 
tion, at Abbeville, in the latter part of 1848, but soon went to 
cursing and getting drunk whenever I could ,get whisky, and 
was the worst boy at Abbeville Court House until you, at Sha- 
ron Camp Ground, in 1851, so stunned me by your powerful 
preaching that I fell upon the ground, rolled in the dirt, foamed 
at the mouth, and agonized under conviction till Christ relieved 
me by his atoning blood. I was licensed to exhort shortly after- 
ward by Dr. Boyd, now sleeping in the cemetery at Marion, S. 
C, and from that time to the present I have been in the Master's 
service. 

I went to St. Louis, Mo., in 1858, was admitted into the itin- 
erant service of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and 
went to Baltimore and spent four years at Trinity College, with 
a view of going to Africa as a missionary. But the war being 
in full blast disarranged my plans. ... I have preached and 
worked for God in every position held, from the day I gave you 
my hand up to the present. I am a poor sinner living upon the 
mercies of God, and Avould be thankful to be remembered by 
vou at a throne of grace. God, however, has honored me far 
beyond my merits. 

God bless you, and may your earthly career terminate amid 
blessings innumerable! 

Your humble servant, Henry M. Turner. 

Bishop J. A. Beebe, one of the bishops of the 
Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, says: 

I was born in Fayetteville, N. C, June 25, 1832. My parents 
were both slaves. I belonged to the family of the Beebes, 
whence I get my name. I remained a slave until I was about 
twenty-seven years of age; at which time, my owners giving 
me the opportunity, I bought my freedom. I was a boot maker 
by trade, at which trade I made the money to buy my freedom. 



Testiinony of Prominent Freedmen. 381 

I joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in 1849, un- 
der the Rev. Mr. Conner, of South CaroHna. I was made fully 
satisfied of mj spiritual change under the preaching of Rev. Mr. 
Samuel Frost, in 1850. In 1851 I was blessed to have the pleas- 
ure of listening to a number of sermons on the subject of sanc- 
tification by the Rev. A C. Adams, and by the aid of the Rev. 
Mr. Bobbit and the Holy Ghost I was led into the blessed light 
of the indwelling of the Spirit of the Lord, during which time 
I was moved to preach the Gospel of Christ. But owing to the 
condition of things at that time in the State of North Carolina, 
I could not then do so. 

In 1865, immediately after the late war, I received license to 
preach from the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. In 
November of the same j^ear I joined the traveling connection 
of that Church, and was ordained deacon by Bishop J. J. Clinton, 
and in 1866 elder bj' the same bishop. In 1S71 I severed my 
connection with the Zion Church, and joined the Colored Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church under Bishop Miles. In 1873 I was 
elected a delegate to the General Conference of that Church, 
held at Augusta, Ga., and was there elected a bishop. 

While a member of the Methodist Church, South, before the 
war, I had constant opportunity of hearing the gospel preached. 
We had regular preaching from the ministers who were ap- 
pointed from the Conference to labor among the colored people. 
In addition to this we had the opportunity of hearing the reg- 
ular preacher to the whites. On every Sundaj' evening oc- 
curred the special preaching to the colored people. Then the 
church would be crowded with those seeking to hear the prom- 
ises of the gospel of Jesus. The conversion of hundreds of my 
people resulted from this pi-eaching. As to myself, I hold in 
dear remembrance the blessings of those days. 

Bishop Lane, of the Colored Methodist Episco- 
pal Church, writes: 

I began to seek religion at the age of twelve years. My 
owners wei-e pious and religious people. My old master held 
his family prayers night and morning. He was a Methodist of 
the purest type. He had been a class leader for fifty-eight 
years in succession I heard preaching from the time I can 



382 



The Gospel among the Slaves. 



remember. The missionaries came regularly on their visits, 
and mj master made every opportunity for his people to hear 
them. He was a good, true man, faithful to God and his obli- 
gations, and I pay this tribute to him from my heart. 

In the year 1854, on the nth day of September, I embraced 




RKV. ISAAC LANE, 
Bishop of the Colored M. E. Church. 



a hope in Christ. On Monday morning, while in the field at 
my work, I was made happy in a Saviour's love, and joined 
the Church soon after. I carried joy and comfort in my 
soul for several days. I felt and Avished that my poor moth- 



Testimony of Prominent Freedinen. 383 

er could enjoy the gift of saving grace. I at once began 
to pray for mother and wife. But the prayer offered was to 
myself when alone. At night I would hold family prayer 
with my wife and mother. And in those prayers the good 
Lord blessed my labors and brought them all into the Church. 
After my old master's plan, I wanted to be alone at noonday ; 
so one day as I was seeking a secret place to pray I was 
overcome with the feeling that I ought to preach. I strove 
for months to get rid of it, but all in vain. I went to my old 
master and made known to him my struggle and the feeling 
that was then strong upon me. He gave me his sympathy, and 
directed me to a certain preacher for counsel and aid. But 
this man did not believe in a negro preaching, and he gave 
me no aid at all, and so my trouble fell heavier than ever. I 
next went to an old colored preacher whom the Methodists had 
helped and were friendly to his exhorting. He was a pure 
Christian, and he told me that if God had really called me, he 
surely knew his own business better than man, and for me not 
to trouble myself, but to trust in God. I did trust him, and the 
inspiration soon came to send in to the Southern Methodists my 
petition to preach. I did so at one of their Conferences. They 
did not refuse me. Indeed, they held out a hand of help and 
encouragement. Rev. George Harris was the presiding elder, 
and Rev. A. R. Wilson the preacher in charge. I thought then 
that he was the best man in the world. My mind has not suf- 
fered much change yet, as he is now living in the same town in 
which I live, and he is the presiding elder of the Jackson Dis- 
trict. 

I was licensed to exhort in the year 1856, by the Southern 
Methodist Church at the fourth Quarterly Conference on the 
Jackson Circuit. I was called on often after that by the white 
preachers to preach to my people on the Sabbath evenings. 
The white preachers all respected me and helped me in every 
way they could. Still it was very embarrassing to me, without 
any education as I was, to preach before the white preachers. 
But they were kind to me, and seemed not to notice my mis- 
takes. So I got so after awhile that I could preach before them 
without much embarrassment, such preaching as it was. But 
God helped me, and wonderfully blessed my work. 

From that date to 1865 the white preachers and I held meet- 



384 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

ings for my people. We had glorious meetings and many 
converts, which soon made our country famous for Methodism 
during the war. But we had stormy times at some places. The 
old days of the beginnings of the Wesleyan movement in En- 
gland, in Ireland, and M'^ales had their reflex in these. Many 
times my life was in danger, and my white brethren were con- 
stantly persecuted for allowing me to preach. The persecutors 
even went so far as to burn down chmxh after church because 
I had preached to my people in them. But my white brethren 
upheld me. And not only the Methodists, but Christians of 
other denominations. One good old Presbyterian brother said 
to me after I had preached in his chuixh: " Brother Lane, keep 
on preaching to your people, and we will keep on building 
churches until the trumpet blows. Let them burn down. We 
will build, and you shall preach." 

That was the spirit in which the Christian whites met me, 
and that is the spirit in which they would do the same thing to- 
day did the opportunity offer. I pay this tribute to my noble 
white brethren with a heart warm and grateful toward them. I 
want to see my race in unity and harmony with the whites. I 
want to see peace and love and the spirit of Christianity pre- 
vail, and not the vicious doctrines of bad men, of corrupt poli- 
ticians, who have only their own ends to serve, and in serving 
them care naught for the negro's welfare nor for his soul. 

Among the excellent men elected bishops of the 
Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, set apart in 
1870 as an organization distinct from the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, South, Bishop Lewis H. Holsey 
occupies a prominent position. He contributes to 
these pages the following interesting paper: 

I was born in 1842 near Columbus, Ga.,and mainly reared in 
Sparta, Hancock County, Ga. In 1S58 my owners moved to 
Athens, Ga. During the first months of this year (1858) I made 
up my mind that I would learn to read, so that I could read the 
Bible. To accomplish this coveted end I stopped going visit- 
ing at night, and devoted all my spare time to my spelling book. 
In those days "the old Webster blue-back speller" was the only 



Testimony of Prominent Freed^nen. 385 

spelling book used, so far as my knowledge goes. I bought two 
of these little books, one of which I tore into leaves. Each day 
while engaged in my work I studied from a single leaf taken 
from my speller, so folding the leaf that a lesson or two was on 
the outside of the fold. When night came on, and I had fin- 




REV. LEWIS H. HOLSEY, 
Bishop of the Colored M. E. Church. 

ished my labor about the house and yard, I went to my sleep- 
ing apartment, and there on my back, with head toward the 
fireplace, I took down my whole speller, going over and re- 
viewing the lessons that I had studied during the day from the 



386 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

folded leaf. My light was made bj burning fat pine wood 
chipped from old roots and stumps that stood in the yard and 
garden. 

I learned the alphabet by hearing the white children repeat 
it. Being in earnest and industrious along this line, I learned 
to read the Old and New Testaments in six months, besides 
learning to write and commit to memory many passages of the 
blessed word of God. From reading the word of God, and 
hearing it expounded by the preacher, I made up my mind to 
be a Christian. That year (185S) Rev. W. A. Parks was sent to 
Athens as pastor to the colored people. It was during the 
months of Api-il and May that he had a revival meeting in 
which one hundred colored persons were converted and added 
to the Church, many of whom lived exemplary lives, demon- 
strating the power of a vital Christianity. 

I had been praying some time before this meeting, but with 
no firm and decided conviction that I would seek religion in 
earnest. I went to church one Sunday, and Brother Parks 
preached from the text: "Friend, how cometh thou in hith- 
er, not having on the wedding garment.?" As the glowing 
words fell from his mouth they seemed as arrows piercing my 
heart and soul, and my frame quivered with fear. I felt as if 
the Jesus of whom he spake was talking to me with his own 
thrilling accents. At the close of his sermon he invited seek- 
ers to the altar for prayer. My feeling was indescribable. 
Must I go or must I stay.'' was the momentous question that 
my spirit seemed to propound to me. At any rate, when I 
found myself I was upon my knees at the altar. This was on 
Sunday. While on my knees I promised the Lord that if 
my life was spared I would seek him day and night until I 
should find him. When I went home, I went to the barn and 
prayed for many hours, and nearly all night I continued in deep 
humility and earnest prayer to God for the pardoning of my 
sins, which appeared to me to be as the stars of heaven and as 
the sands of the seashore for multitude. For one dreary, long, 
dark seven days, whether at work or otherwise engaged, my 
prayer like smoke on a calm day ascended in earnest words to 
God in the name of his dear Son who loved me and gave him- 
self for me. During that week I attended church every night, 
going to the altar each night for prayer. Sometimes our faith- 



Testimony of Prominent Freedmen. 387 

ful and loving pastor would preach, and then some others; but 
no matter who preached, he closed up the meeting bj a few 
words of instruction to "the mourners." 

Sunday came; the day passed. It was a day of sorrow, 
agony, and prayer with me. I began to fear that I had com- 
mitted the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost. What 
that sin was I did not know, but I was afraid of it. But anoth- 
er Sunday came, and as usual during the past week I went to 
the altar, with a determination that if I went to hell I would go 
praying. After prayer I remained at the altar. Brother Parks 
rose up and laid his hand on my head and said: "Brethren, I 
believe God will convert this boy right now." When he said 
this, I felt that all my sins and condemnation left me, and light- 
ness of heart and a thrill of joy ran through my frame, and I 
wanted to sing and cry out, but by great effort I subdued my 
feeling. The meeting continued some days after, and I felt like 
a new man — yea, I was new. Never, to rny latest day on 
earth, can I forget the time, place, and the experience. As 
Brother Parks was not an elder, his uncle, H. H. Parks, who 
was then pastor of the white Methodist Church, did the baptiz- 
ing. I was baptized by him, and taken into the Church. 

Never shall I forget the zeal, earnest, and honest work of 
Brother W. A. Parks and his uncle Harwell. They could have 
done no more for the salvation of their own people than they 
did for the colored. They prayed, preached, and worked with 
a devotion for the good of the coloi-ed people in their charge 
that seemed not only heroic, but angelic. I am a brand 
plucked from the fire by their heroic and splendid efforts. All 
over this Southland many, if they would, can bear the same 
testimony, because they came out of the bondage of sin into 
his blessed light by or through the preaching and labors of 
other noble white men who, like Brother Parks, toiled faithful- 
ly for the redemption of their souls. Indeed, the colored Meth- 
odists of this country may go into other divisions of the Meth- 
odist Church, and associate with whom they please, but let us 
and them remember that the brethren of the M. E. Church, 
South, begat them unto a lively hope in Jesus Christ. 

The course of this brother has been eminently- 
conservative, and in every difficult position he 



388 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

has proved himself an able and trustworthy coun- 
selor of his race. 

Hon. Charles H. J. Taylor, late Minister to Li- 
beria, writes: 

I am one of those who incline to the opinion that American 
African slavery was the way intended by an all-wise and om- 
nipotent Creator to bring the negro race to civilization and 
Christianity, who, with their fathers during the prosperous days 
of prehistoric Africa, had turned their backs upon God and 
gone off after idols. " The soul that sinneth it shall die." For 
every crime there must be punishment. It is right, it is nat- 
ural that it should be so. Let no one think for a moment that 
I seek to paint in mild color the cruel and unchristianHke 
treatment meted out to slaves by some who served as masters 
only to afflict the decent, sober, and God-fearing element — by 
far the larger part — of the slave-holding states. There are two 
sides to the slavery question; the one should be told with as 
much pleasure to cause joy, as the other is related to occasion 
pain and irritate old sores left by fratricidal conflict. To tell 
the worst feature and leave the best unsaid would not only be 
wrong, but a crime. 

To say that there were hundreds of masters who owned 
slaves who desired continually their spiritual and temporal 
welfare is to say what every informed person knows. I know 
now an old slave owner — God bless him! — who takes pleasure 
in relating how glad he was to own slaves, that he might con- 
strain — yes, compel — them (for they v/ere, in their untutored 
state, but children) to walk in the paths of industry, morality, 
and Christianity. He had often said to me that no food came 
into his house that did not enter for all alike, the bond and the 
free. When he pvirchased clothing or presents for his family, 
they were counted a part and got their share. Another picture: 
Sunday morning when he started to the old church in Perry 
County, Ala., they accompanied him. He was, indeed, a can- 
dle set upon a hill, a light which was not and could not be hid. 
So he lived during those days when responsibility and anxiety 
rested entirely with one class, while obedience, and with that 
obedience happiness, belonged to the other. The habits of the 



Testhnony of Protniiient Freedmen. 389 

slaves so reared served them well as slaves and have made them 
successful as freemen. 

Onlj last night I was conversing with a gentleman who is 
engaged in business in front of my office, and we happened to 
begin talking about the agitation and the general unsettled con- 
dition of "these times;" and then, bj way of contrast, of the 
old times when there was, in so many, many instances, the 
most tender relation between black and white, owner and slave. 
How different then from now, when everything is in a ferment 
through the poisonous words and baneful influence of those 
who have no real interest in the negro himself, but simply de- 
sire to use him as a tool in furtherance of their own selfish 
ends! He talked about a certain old family black man with 
whom he was raised; how his father never bought him any- 
thing without pvirchasing the same thing for the black. Free- 
dom came, and with freedom the sower of evil, and dissatisfied 
the old family servant with his surroundings. He left the home 
bought by his former master, which belonged as much to him 
as though he had a deed from his master for it. He had in his 
possession when he left a good supply of clothes, some money, 
and other property. Years after he returned in rags and tat- 
ters. He had gone wrong; never having to care for himself, 
being always provided for, the faculty of "self-preservation" 
was undeveloped. This gentleman told me that his father was 
dead when the old servant returned, and the thought of how 
the servant looked when he left home and his appearance when 
he returned hurt him so much and made him feel so sad that 
he could not restrain his tears. He said that he would rather 
have lost one thousand dollars than to have seen the sight. 

A distinguished citizen of this place (Atlanta, Ga.), and an 
office holder, a few days ago was telling me about the return- 
ing to him of a woman he used to own. She had been gone 
ever since the war, and he believed her dead. He said that he 
was as proud to see her as he could possibly have been to see 
his natural mother. She is now at his house, and can live there 
until she dies if she desires. 

Hundreds of the negroes who own their little homes in the 
South can and are glad to testify how their former owners 
helped them to acquire these places. 

Evei-y morning of my life when I visit the Recorder's court 



390 The Gosfel among the Slaves. 

room and the Citj Court, about the first thing I observe is a 
white man whispei'ing in the ear of Judge James Anderson, or 
seeking Hon. Howard Van Epps in his room, on behalf of 
some unfortunate darky, said darky having been at one time 
the old family servant. This is not all: the interested white 
man waits, and if the colored man is fined, he pays the fine for 
him. 

This article cannot be closed until I have performed my duty 
by a class of whites who, although not yet cominented upon, 
stand entitled to the longest robe, the brightest crown, and a 
higher seat than any that has yet been mentioned. I speak of 
that class who are entitled to the noble honor of having been 
the first to enkindle the glowing light of evangelization in the 
darkened soul of the negro. Good men and women they were, 
with the spirit of their divine Master aflame in their hearts, and 
made of such material as asked only to wear out in that service 
toward which the noblest impulses of their Christianity had di- 
rected them. 

I have talked with numbers of negro men and women who 
gladly tell me that they first felt the heaviness of their sins, and 
how wretched and lost was their condition without the applica- 
tion of the blood of Jesus, bj' attendance upon the meetings 
held by these saintly men and women I have named. No one 
knows, except those who have passed through the diflSculties 
they encountered, just what their afliiictions often were. Many 
were the cruel " cuts in words " they received for having faith 
in their ability to make the negro an intelligent Christian wor- 
shiper. But being full of the divine unction from above, and be- 
ing strong of purpose, they continued, never halting, never faint- 
ing, never daunted, ever ready, ever waiting, and always will- 
ing, until now those of them who still live can rejoice in the 
God of their salvation at knowing that the seed they sowed 
years ago — though by many thought to have been in barren 
soil and lost — has quickened and sprung up into living trees of 
giant usefulness for the service of the Lord. God grant their 
eyes may not close in death until they see another picture, that 
of the American African brought to Christ through their ef- 
forts, taking passage for his former benighted land, there to 
evangelize that great continent, bringing its people to a knowl- 
edge of the truth they themsetves found in the bonds of slav- 



Testimony of Prominent Freedmen. 391 

ery ! Yes, God grant that those who worked while others slept 
(at a time when my poor race was owned as property in this 
country), to teach them the doctrine of true liberty — the free- 
dom of religion — may be spared, many of them, to gaze upon 
the good result of their noble. Christian labors! 

When these Christian pioneers die — that is, when they go 
into another house, for die they will not — let no negro, if seats 
are scarce in that celestial city, sit down while one of them is 
standing. In other words, let my race make haste to act up to 
the noble principles so early instilled into them by these evan- 
gels of light, these Christian men and women who went about, 
and who still go about, doing good — yea, make them glad that 
they ever formed our acquaintance and taught us what a good 
thing it was to know God in the pardon of our sins. 

The feeling of affinity that binds these two races together 
can never be destroyed, let bad men say what and do what they 
will. The time is ripe for the springing seeds of love — Chris- 
tian love — good will and unity. The Lord send the harvest! 

The Rev. A. J. Stinson, presiding elder of the 
Columbia, S. C, District, in the Colored Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church, writes: 

I was born in Crawford County, Ga., January 13, 1847. My 
father and mother, then slaves, were converted before my birth 
under the ministry of the Methodist Church, South. At the 
age of three or four years I moved with them to Floyd County, 
nine miles west of Rome. Hei-e in the neighborhood the white 
people had a schoolhouse in which meetings were held on 
Sundays for the colored people. We were preached to alter- 
nately by the Revs. Kitchens and Newton. Mr. Oliver Mc- 
Clennan was our class leader. They were all of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, South, and all labored nobly among us. I 
remember vividly, though then a child, the gracious times of 
those days. 

At the age of five I was baptized by the Rev. Mr. Newton. 
I then felt my first and lasting impression of religion and real- 
ized deeply my obligation as a baptized believer, both to God 
and to his Church. The keen remembrances of that hour to 
this day electrify my soul, and I see in my mind that old man 



392 The Gospel among the Slaves. 

as he took me in his arms and, looking toward heaven, said: 
"God bless this child!" Here a flood of holy fire sweeps over 
my soul, but I must not let ray emotions overcome me. 

At the age of fifteen I felt assuredly the call to preach, though 
I had not as yet made an open profession of religion. Then 
the terrible clash of war, which demoralized our civilized coun- 
try, came on, and for four years cannons roared, musketry rat- 
tled, and sabers clashed, while the brave bled and died. Yet 
the fire of God's holy spirit, as a living volcano, burned on in 
my heart, and in the hearts of others of my race, where the sa- 
cred flame of evangelization had been enkindled by the noble 
efforts of the white Christians. 

At the close of the war I moved to Waters District, a few 
miles east of Rome. Here, at Rush's Chapel, Thursday, Au- 
gust, 1866, while Revs. Thomas Pledger, William Hickey, and 
A. M. Thigpen — the latter then pastor in Rome — were conduct- 
ing a revival meeting for the white people, but which any of 
us who wished were allowed to attend, my soul, while Rev. Mr. 
Pledger preached, was revived as into a burning flame. Think- 
ing, however, that it would appear rude to give vent to my 
feelings there — though the whole congregation was shouting — 
I made for the door, then outside to the woods, where I praised 
God alone for four hours. On the Sunday following Rev. Mr. 
Pledger preached for the colored people in the same church, 
and thirty-five of us became members. Rev. William Hickey, 
our pastor, was present and appointed me the same day as class 
leader and exhorter. 

But I must not conclude ere telling how I came to be at that 
Thursday meeting, where Rev. Mr. Pledger aroused such a fire 
in my heart. It was through Mr. Branchfield, father of Rev. 
William Branchfield, of the Georgia Conference. God bless 
him! Passing me on his way to church, he said to me: " Come, 
my boy, and go to church with me." I told him I would be on 
soon, but I had no idea as I spoke of keeping my promise. 
After the good man had gone, however, his words, his face, and 
his manner all came back to me so forcibly, seeming to speak 
to me even then, that I could resist no longer, and so I went on 
after him to the house of God, and was there and then glorious- 
ly converted. Thank God that I can say, like David : " I was glad 
w^hen they said to me. Let us go into the house of the Lord." 



Testimony of Prominent J^rcednien. 393 

Rev. Washington Phillips, with his sons, occu- 
pies a prominent place in the Colored Methodist 
Episcopal Church. Rev. J. T. Phillips writes: 

I was born at Newnan, in Coweta, Ga., June 24, 1837. I am 
the oldest son of Rev. Washington Phillips, of Milledgeville, 
Ga. Mj father joined the Methodist Church at the age of fif- 
teen; he has been a member sixty jears. My mother was con- 
verted when I was four weeks old, and joined the Methodist 
Church shortly afterwards. She has been a member fifty-three 
years 

I joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, under the 
preaching of the Rev. Mr. Knox, who was then pastor of the 
Church at Milledgeville. It was during the time of a revival; 
white and black were alike powerfully impressed. The preacher 
preached to both white and colored, as faithfully to one as to 
the other. Milledgeville was a station. The pastor preached 
once a month also in the country to white and colored. I was 
converted May 8, 1859. That date remains engraven upon my 
memory. I at once commenced talking, going from house to 
house, telling my people of the blessed Saviour I had found. 
The church at Milledgeville was very large. The colored mem- 
bers were given full use of the gallery. They crowded it day 
and night. 

I was licensed to preach by Elder Josiah Lewis in 1867, and 
joined the Conference in 1869. I preached four years in Mil- 
ledgeville, was five years presiding elder, and eleven years on 
circuits. While I was presiding my white brethren were ever 
kind to me. They helped me gladly in many ways. They gave 
me money and they gave me encouragement. I cannot tell how 
many of them gave me lots on which to build churches. I have 
never bought a single lot on which to build a church; all have 
been given through the kindness of my white brethren. I grate- 
fully give this testimony to their kindness, help, and liberality. 
They treated me as a Christian and a brother. May it return to 
them a hundredfold. 

My owners, too, were kind. They allowed their children to 
teach my father's children to read. I will be fifty-three years 
old in June. I have three brothers, and all four of us are Meth- 
odist preachers. By God's grace we hope to meet in heaven. 



394 '^^^^ Gospel amoitg the Slaves. 

I have seen many ups and downs in life, but through them all 
the star of light, kindled through the noble Christian efforts of 
the white ministry, has shown over the way, lighting me along 
the path that leads to my Father's house of many mansions. 

I long to see harmony, good will, and brotherly charity be- 
tween the two races that it seems God's will shall live together. 
I want the sentiments and teachings of Christian men and 
women to prevail and not the plots and vile intrigues of schem- 
ing politicians. As a general thing, the negro loves the white 
man. He looks up to him and trusts him, and it is a great mis- 
take when the white man fails to meet this trust with the kind- 
liness and grace he knows so well how to use. 

I say to my colored brethren to trust the white man whose 
noble concern is for their immortal souls, whose hand is fear- 
less to help in time of trouble, whose souls is knit to them by 
the old kindly ties of days of yore, whose ancestors through 
pains and noble toils brought spiritual light to the negro's soul. 
These are the men — and thank God there are many of them 
throughout the South to-day! — who have sincerely at heart the 
negro's best interest, who treat him as a fellow-human being, 
who are glad to see him succeed in life, who deal justly with 
him, are considerate of his claims, and who meet him as a 
brother, a brother in Christ, on the broad plane of Christianity. 

With these testimonies of gratitude from the 
members of a race formerly held in bondage we 
close the record of toil, hardship, and self-denial 
on the part of the missionaries of the cross. That 
they have not been exposed to every danger in- 
curred b}^ pioneers in heathen lands is true, but 
they encountered difficulties peculiar to their times 
and to the nature of their work. Most of these 
workmen have gone forward to the meeting of the 
" General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn " 
in heaven, and those who remain must follow soon. 
To each will come in due season the welcome 
plaudit: "Well done, good and faithful servant, 
enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." 



